2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility.

Lectures were once useful; but now when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary.

Virtue is uncommon in all the classes of humanity; and I suppose it will scarcely be imagined more frequent in a prison than in other places. Yet...

I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use. It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and the vague excursions of mind set upon discovery, that any advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed to inspire emulation, and their miscarriage taught others the way to success.

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety.

Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.

There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.