2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life’s a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how soon he dies!

London! the needy villain’s general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.

It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification.

The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today.

Whisky making is the art of making poison pleasant.

The size of a man’s understanding can be justly measured by his mirth.

Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last.

Learn that the present hour alone is man’s.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.