2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Smoking. . . is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes and noses, and having the same thing done to us.

We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.

I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

No greater felicity can genius attain than that of having purified intellectual pleasure, separated mirth from indecency, and wit from licentiousness

Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.