Desire Quotes by Samuel Johnson

All envy is proportionate to desire.

— Samuel Johnson

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion.

— Samuel Johnson

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.

— Samuel Johnson

I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.

— Samuel Johnson

Love is only one of many passions.

— Samuel Johnson

It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain.

— Samuel Johnson

Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.

— Samuel Johnson

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

— Samuel Johnson

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are suppliedmust admit those of fancy.

— Samuel Johnson

Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who while he was chill was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted…

— Samuel Johnson

It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire…

— Samuel Johnson

The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.

— Samuel Johnson

The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.

— Samuel Johnson

Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down…

— 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

Let him that desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every…

— Samuel Johnson

We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to…

— Samuel Johnson

Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately…

— Samuel Johnson

Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive,…

— Samuel Johnson

I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love…

— Samuel Johnson

There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe,…

— Samuel Johnson

But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which…

— 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

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly;…

— Samuel Johnson

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the…

— Samuel Johnson

When the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and see how it operates upon than…

— Samuel Johnson

We took tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously.…

— Samuel Johnson

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. The acknowledgment of those virtues on which conscience congratulates us is…

— Samuel Johnson

There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever…

— Samuel Johnson

That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily…

— Samuel Johnson

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

— Samuel Johnson

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

— Samuel Johnson

Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the…

— Samuel Johnson

It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town…

— Samuel Johnson

The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any…

— Samuel Johnson

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a…

— Samuel Johnson

All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would…

— Samuel Johnson

Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate…

— Samuel Johnson

Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas; he that reads books of science, thogh…

— Samuel Johnson

He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has…

— Samuel Johnson