Quotes from Samuel Johnson

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence. ( Essay on Tea , 1757.)

There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.

I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Language is the dress of thought.

How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure. Still to ourselves in every place consign'd, Our own felicity we make or find:

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

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.

men do not suspect faults which they do not commit

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

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

Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.