Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Pleasure is seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

ADVERSARIA  (ADVERSA'RIA)   n.s.[Lat. A book, as it should seem, in which Debtor and Creditor were set in opposition.]A common-place; a book to note in. These parchments are supposed to have been St. Paul's adversaria.Bull'sSermons.

There is nothing by which a man exasperates most people more, than displaying a superior ability of briliancy in conversation. They seem pleased at the time; but their envy makes them curse him at their hearts.

which has the power or quality of adding. The additory fiction gives to a great man a larger share of reputation than belongs to him, to enable him to serve some good end or purpose.Arbuthnot'sArt of political Lying.

Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, swells into a theorist...

That I want nothing," said the Prince, "or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint; if I had any known want, I should have a certain wish; that wish would excite endeavour, and I should not then repine to see the sun move so slowly towards the western mountains, or to lament when the day breaks, and sleep will no longer hide me from myself.

All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.

Unless a Woman has an Amorous Heart, She is a Dull Companion.

A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.

While she was doing something she kept her hope alive.

ANKER  (A'NKER)   n.s.[ancker, Dut.] A liquid measure chiefly used at Amsterdam. It is the fourth part of the awm, and contains two stekans: each stekan consists of sixteen mengles; the mengle being equal

You must not neglect doing a thing immediately good from fear of remote evil; --from fear of its being abused.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity

Fancy can hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked his reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous current through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own great merit with steady consciousness, and waiting, without impatience, the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation.

Do not disturb your mind," said Imlac, "with other hopes or fears than reason may suggest; if you are pleased with the prognostics of good, you will be terrified likewise with tokens of evil, and your whole life will be a prey to superstition.

And here the fell attorney prowls for prey; Here falling houses thunder on your head, And here a female atheist talks you dead.    While

Others, with softer smiles, and subtler art, Can sap the principles, or taint the heart; With more address a lover's note convey, Or bribe a virgin's innocence away. Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue Ne'er knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong, Spurned as a beggar, dreaded as a spy, Live unregarded, unlamented die.   For

Of all the griefs, that harass the distressed, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than

How gloomy would be these mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he shall never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on for ever. Those that lie here stretched before us, the wise and the powerful of ancient times, warn us to remember the shortness of our present state; they were, perhaps, snatched away while they were busy, like us, in the choice of life.

Of all the griefs, that harass the distressed, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.   Has

In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.

By day the frolic, and the dance by night.