2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life.

It is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it.

He who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any other effect than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.

The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any other claim to notice than that they catch hold on present curiosity, and gratify some accidental desire, or produce some temporary conveniency.

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

The peculiar doctrine of Christianity is that of a universal sacrifice and perpetual propitiation.