Quotes from Samuel Johnson

The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.

In a man's letters his soul lies naked.

Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others... This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.

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

A second marriage is a triumph of hope over experience.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Do not suffer life to stagnate, it will grow muddy for want of motion; commit yourself again to the current of the world.

No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

Sir, there is nothing too little for so little creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act which shows that it was conferred without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of virtue than of importance.

MARRY IN HASTE, REPENT AT LEISURE.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.

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.

Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own dispositions will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the griefs which he purposes to remove

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation.