Samuel Johnson

“I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance.”

“This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”

“It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower station; whether it be that apparent superiority incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of those whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally observed, and have in reality only been more conspicuous than others, not more frequent, or more severe.”

“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.”

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove”

“Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.”

“All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.”

“If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still.”

“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

“Happiness," said he, "must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.”

“I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.”

“Perhaps the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in a few words.We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but because, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may therefore be justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.”

“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. ”

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. When we enquire into any subject, the first thing we have to do is to know what books have treated of it. This leads us to look at catalogues, and at the backs of books in libraries.”

“He who praises everybody, praises nobody.”

“The pleasures of sudden wonder are soon exhausted, and the mind can only repose on the stability of truth.”

“There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not know it.”

“The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.”

“Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.”

“Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life . . . the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.”

“Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning than the disposition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend.”

“I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.”

“Parts are not to be examined till the whole has been surveyed; there is a kind of intellectual remoteness necessary for the comprehension of any great work in its full design and its true proportions; a close approach shews the smaller niceties, but the beauty of the whole is discerned no longer.”

“The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controversy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rise again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progress.”

“Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

“A secret in his mouth, is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but 'tis out.”

“We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties; an event, which none but very perspicacious politicians are able to foresee. If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”

“Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.”

“Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.”

“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.”

“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.”

“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.”

“There is no problem the mind of man can set that the mind of man cannot solve.”

“Language is the dress of thought.”

“He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.”

“I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark." Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)”

“Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections [....]Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.”

“You can never be wise unless you love reading.”

“People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.—You might teach making of shoes by lectures!”

“Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.”

“A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.”

“Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye in time is accommodated to darkness.”

“Who will consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since, while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away; that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be sufficient; that he, whose design includes whatever language can express, must often speak of what he does not understand.”

“It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.”

“Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”

“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”

“Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

“Fancy can hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked his reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous current through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own great merit with steady consciousness, and waiting, without impatience, the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.”

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.”

“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”