2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

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

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth much, when it has suffered the devastations of a siege.

Faults and defects every work of man must have.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

[W]ith an unquiet mind, neither exercise, nor diet, nor physick can be of much use.