All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye in time is accommodated to darkness.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A soldier's time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As to precedents, to be sure they will increase in course of time; but the more precedents there are, the less occasion… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
History can be formed from permanent monuments and records; but lives can only be written from personal knowledge, which is growing every… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always… — 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
Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life . . . the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so… — 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
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The accidental prescriptions of authority, when time has procured them veneration, are often confounded with the laws of nature, and those rules… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts… — 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
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A good wife is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time: he should impute the seeming… — 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
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
![“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind…” quote by Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/590/samuel-johnson-50_appropriateness_my-dear-friend-clear-your-mind-of-cant-e_74600.jpg)
![“[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.” quote by Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/668/samuel-johnson-50_future-generation_the-poet-must-write-as-the-interpreter-o_3180253.jpg)
