2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

I am hungry and thirsty, like him, but when thirst and hunger cease, I am not at thirst, I am not at rest. I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him satisfied with fullness.

Much mischief is done in the world with very little interest or design.

There are people whom one should like very well to drop, and would not wish to be dropped by.

This is one of the disadvantages of wine: it makes a man mistake words for thought.

The powers of the letters, when they were applied to a new language, must have been vague and unsettled, and therefore different hands would exhibit the same sound by different combinations.

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavors to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet less temptation, betray each other to their children.

If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still.

Prudence keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.