By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations of petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be rekindled by intervals of absence. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
...a man estimable for his learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Ladies, stock and tend your hive, Trifle not at thirty-five; For, howe'er we boast and strive, Life declines from thirty-five; He that… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To purchase Heaven has gold the power? Can gold remove the mortal hour? In life can love be bought with gold? Are… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He… — 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
“Such, said Nekayah, is the state of life, none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Providence has fixed the limits of human enjoyment by immovable boundaries, and has set different gratifications at such a distance from each… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer:… — 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
The number of such as live without the ardour of inquiry is very small, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken… — 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
I do not envy a clergyman's life as an easy life, nor do I envy the clergyman who makes it an easy… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it,… — 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
