Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas; he that reads books of science, thogh… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“It is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labor and rest, hurry and retirement, endear… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
At length weariness succeeds to labor, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments without any desire… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate"; an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are suppliedmust admit those of fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who while he was chill was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
