Quotes from Samuel Johnson

But it is generally agreed that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation; and that the powers of the mind, when they are unbound and expanded by the sunshine of felicity, more frequently luxuriate into follies than blossom into goodness.

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

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor.

I doubt if there ever was a man who was not gratified by being told that he was liked by the women.

Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery.

There is always something a woman will prefer to the truth.

As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

Men know that women are an overmatch for them and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

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.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.

There are in every age new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.

Golf is a game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood.

It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without any measure but interest, and to lose shame without substituting virtue.

Age is rarely despised but when it is, contemptible.

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

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

To make dictionaries is dull work.