Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Wretched un-idea'd girls.

[Sunday] should be different from another day. People may walk, but not throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no levity.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Preserve me from unseasonable and immoderate sleep.

There is more knowledge of the heart in one letter of Richardson's than in all Tom Jones.

It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.

Small debts are like small shot they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon of loud noise, but little danger.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

A cucumber whould be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and viniger, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

Americans are a race of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

An intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which he cannot apply will make no man wise.

Be not too hasty to trust or admire the teachers of morality they discourse like angels, but they live like men.

Being in a ship is like being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

Do not ... hope wholly to reason away your troubles do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your mind.

Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

ESSAY -- A loose sally of the mind an irregular indigested piece not a regular and orderly composition.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.