2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

We found in the course of our journey the convenience of having disencumbered ourselves, by laying aside whatever we could spare; for it is not to be imagined without experience, how in climbing crags and treading bogs, and winding through narrow and obstructed passages, a little bulk will hinder, and a little weight will burden; or how often a man that has pleased himself at home with his own resolution, will, in the hour of darkness and fatigue, be content to leave behind him everything but himself.

Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.

The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.

If the guardian or the mother Tell the woes of willful waste, Scorn their counsel and their pother, You can hang or drown at last.

Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her.

Among the numerous requisites that must concur to complete an author, few are of more importance than an early entrance into the living world. The seed of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public. Argumentation may be taught in colleges, and theories formed in retirement; but the artifice of embellishment and the powers of attraction can be gained only by a general converse.

Diligence in employments of less consequence is the most successful introduction to greater enterprises.

When a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment.