Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No man can have much kindness for him by whom he does not believe himself esteemed, and nothing so evidently proves esteem… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All is not gold that glitters, as we have often been told; and the adage is verified in your place and my… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If what happens does not make us richer, we must welcome it if it makes us wiser. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I? — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Good sense alone is a sedate and quiescent quality, which manages its possessions well, but does not increase them; it collects few… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Quack: A boastful pretender to arts which he does not understand. A vain boastful pretender to physick; An artful, tricking practitioner in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The good of our present state is merely comparative, and the evil which every man feels will be sufficient to disturb and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that applauds him who does not deserve praise, is endeavoring to deceive the public; he that hisses in malice or sport,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Gaiety is to good-humor as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance. The one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle. — 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
