2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.

Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.

In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.

It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.

There is always something a woman will prefer to the truth.