Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Hell is paved with good intentions.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.

You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.

To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.

Nothing [...] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.

It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times ... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly.

To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old age is to sleep at an attack.

He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.

In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied might remove the cause.

Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations.

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

Time quickly puts an end to artificial and accidental fame

The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.