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
Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There may be community of material possessions, but there can never be community of love or esteem. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Care that is once enter'd into the breast Will have the whole possession ere it rest. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But though it cannot be reasonable not to gain happiness for fear of losing it, yet it must be confessed, that in… — 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
To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the emptiness of human enjoyment that we are always impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession… — 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
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
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
Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
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 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
