Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest; The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless! The last corruption of degenerate man.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.

There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt.

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

When any fit of anxiety, or gloominess, or perversion of mind lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints, but exert your whole care to hide it; by endeavouring to hide it you will drive it away. Be always busy.

Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.

If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair.

Grief is a species of idleness.

He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

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

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

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

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity.

A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.