Samuel Johnson Quotes

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

You can never be wise unless you love reading.

Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

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 a book.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it.