Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to farther progress.

I am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed.

The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it.

The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.

All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.

The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.

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

Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.

We seldom require more to the happiness of the present hour than to surpass him that stands next before us.

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification.

It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

To preserve health is a moral and religious duty: for health is the basis of all social virtues; and we can be useful no longer than while we are well.

Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who is there does not sometimes hazard it for the enjoyment of an hour?

The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.