“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”
-Samuel Johnson
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.”
-Samuel Johnson
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
-Samuel Johnson
“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
-Samuel Johnson
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
-Samuel Johnson
“My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
-Samuel Johnson
“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
-Samuel Johnson
“There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.”
-Samuel Johnson
“I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.”
-Samuel Johnson
“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
-Samuel Johnson
“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Hell is paved with good intentions.”
-Samuel Johnson
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
-Samuel Johnson
“You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.”
-Samuel Johnson
“It is necessary to hope… for hope itself is happiness.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?”
-Samuel Johnson
“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.”
-Samuel Johnson
“To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Nothing […] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.”
-Samuel Johnson
“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
-Samuel Johnson
“This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”
-Samuel Johnson
“While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?”
-Samuel Johnson
“Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.”
-Samuel Johnson
“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”
-Samuel Johnson
“You can never be wise unless you love reading.”
-Samuel Johnson
“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
-Samuel Johnson
“A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.”
-Samuel Johnson
“He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”
Never Will
Samuel Johnson
“A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.”
-Samuel Johnson
“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”
-Samuel Johnson
“If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.”
-Samuel Johnson
“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.”
-Samuel Johnson
“We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”
-Samuel Johnson
“Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”
-Samuel Johnson
“The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.”
-Samuel Johnson