Quotes from Samuel Johnson

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.

Here I first mounted a little Highland steed; and if there had been many spectators, should have been somewhat ashamed of my figure in the march. The horses of the Islands, as of other barren countries, are very low: they are indeed musculous and strong, beyond what their size gives reason for expecting; but a bulky man upon one of their backs makes a very disproportionate appearance.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye, and while we glide along the stream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always lessening, and that which we approach increasing in magnitude.

What cannot be repaired is not to be regretted.

The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted, varied with shades, and scented with flowers.

There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable that I would not rather know it than not know it.

It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one mind, but in one composition.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

The true art of memory, is the art of attention

Enquirer, cease, Petitions yet remain, Which Heav'n may hear, nor deem Religion vain. Still raise for Good the supplicating Voice, But leave to Heav'n the Measure and the Choice.

Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.

Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections [....] Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

His comedy pleases by the thoughts and the language, and his tragedy for the greater part by incident and action. His tragedy seems to be skill, his comedy to be instinct.

The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.

Imitations produce pain or pleasure, not because they are mistaken for realities, but because they bring realities to mind.

If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still.