Quotes from Samuel Johnson

He knows not his own strength who hath not met adversity.

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

Dictionaries are like watches. The worst is better than none at all and even the best cannot be expected to run quite true.

No member of a society has a right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.

The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls.

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of everything.

Shame arises from the fear of man; conscience from the fear of God.

That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.

John Wesley's conversation is good, but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.

None are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

Moderation is commonly firm, and firmness is commonly successful.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that is makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

For a man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.

Example is more efficacious than precept.

He that has much to do will do something wrong.

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

Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears.

None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.