2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.

A blaze first pleases and then tires the sight.

A transition from an author's book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city.

The worst evils are those that never arrive.

There are some works which the authors must consign unpublished to posterity, however uncertain be the event, however hopeless be the trust. He that writes the history of his own times, if he adhere steadily to truth, will write that which his own times will not easily endure. He must be content to reposite his book till all private passions shall cease, and love and hatred give way to curiosity.

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.

Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities, superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world; and, whatever apparent disadvantages he may suffer in the comparison with others, he has some invisible distinctions, some latent reserve of excellence, which he throws into the balance, and by which he generally fancies that it is turned in his favour.

A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.