2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible. [on hearing a famous violinist]

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

men do not suspect faults which they do not commit

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.

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

Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.