2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.

They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.

The great source of pleasure is variety.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.

Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

This is my history; like all other histories, a narrative of misery.