2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties.

We are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch advantages without paying the price at which they are offered to us. Every man wishes to be rich, but very few have the powers necessary to raise a sudden fortune, either by new discoveries, or by superiority of skill in any necessary employment; and among lower understandings many want the firmness and industry requisite to regular gain and gradual acquisitions.

The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered.

Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.

An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.

Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.

The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.

What signifies protesting so against flattery! when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or false, you know; if true, let us rejoice in his good opinion; if he lies, it is a proof at least that he loves more to please me, than to sit s

Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.