Wish Quotes by Samuel Johnson

The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and the dread of poverty.

— Samuel Johnson

Fate wings, with every wish, the afflictive dart, Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.

— Samuel Johnson

A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.

— Samuel Johnson

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.

— Samuel Johnson

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

— Samuel Johnson

I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.

— Samuel Johnson

Read the book you do honestly feel a wish and curiosity to read.

— Samuel Johnson

He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.

— Samuel Johnson

It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the…

— Samuel Johnson

I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable…

— Samuel Johnson

We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to…

— Samuel Johnson

It is more reasonable to wish for reputation while it may be enjoyed, as Anacreon calls upon his companions to give him…

— Samuel Johnson

The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments…

— Samuel Johnson

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the…

— Samuel Johnson

The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found…

— Samuel Johnson

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights…

— Samuel Johnson

Pity is not natural to man. Children and savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason.…

— Samuel Johnson

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes, and…

— Samuel Johnson

Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may…

— Samuel Johnson

The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined…

— Samuel Johnson

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing…

— Samuel Johnson

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore…

— Samuel Johnson

When a friend is carried to his grave, we at once find excuses for every weakness, and palliation of every fault. We…

— Samuel Johnson

They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than…

— Samuel Johnson

No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with…

— Samuel Johnson

We are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch…

— Samuel Johnson

Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always…

— Samuel Johnson

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does…

— Samuel Johnson

Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.

— Samuel Johnson

Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

— Samuel Johnson

I wish you would add an index rerum, that when the reader recollects any incident he may easily find it.

— Samuel Johnson

That we must all die, we always knew, I wish I had sooner remembred it.

— Samuel Johnson

There are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.

— Samuel Johnson

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

— Samuel Johnson

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

— Samuel Johnson

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when…

— Samuel Johnson

One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world therefore swarms with writers whose…

— Samuel Johnson

That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness…

— Samuel Johnson

If an author be supposed to involve his thoughts in voluntary obscurity, and to obstruct, by unnecessary difficulties, a mind eager in…

— Samuel Johnson

Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by…

— Samuel Johnson