2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

To forget, or pretend to do so, to return a borrowed article, is the meanest sort of petty theft.

Man's chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature.

It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering into refined speculations, it may be shown much easier to design than to perform. A man proposes his schemes of life in a state of abstraction and disengagement, exempt from the enticements of hope, the solicitations of affection, the importunities of appetite, or the depressions of fear.

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a grey one.

Sir, we are a nest of singing birds

To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton.

Your aspirations are your possibilities.

In a man’s letters his soul lies naked.

A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapours are to the traveller: he follows it at all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of his way and sure to engulf him in the mire.