2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at eighteen as I do now.

Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.

In matters of business, no woman stops at integrity.

I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.

It is certain that success naturally confirms in us a favourable opinion of our own abilities. Scarce any man is willing to allot to accident, friendship, and a thousand causes, which concur in every event without human contrivance or interposition, the part which they may justly claim in his advancement. We rate ourselves by our fortune rather than our virtues, and exorbitant claims are quickly produced by imaginary merit.

The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.

Men have solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.