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Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have
forgotten your aim.
Topic: Fanaticism
Source: Rambler (#173)
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The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity.
Topic: Fanaticism
Source: Rambler (#173)
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Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of
God.
Topic: Fear
Source: Recollections of Johnson, From Miss Reynolds
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Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to
negotiate.
Topic: Fear
Source: Recollections of Johnson, From Miss Reynolds
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Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
Topic: Flattery
Source: None
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The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants.
Topic: Freedom of the Press
Source: None
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If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone; one should keep his friendships in constant repair. -Samuel Johnson.
Topic: Friendship
Source: None
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If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone; one should keep his friendships in constant repair.
Topic: Friendship
Source: None
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Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child's rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man's whore.
Topic: Generations
Source: None
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The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest;
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.
Topic: Gold
Source: Irene (act I, sc. 1)
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While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
Topic: Grief
Source: None
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While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
Topic: Grief
Source: None
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How guilt once harbour'd in the conscious breast,
Intimidates the brave, degrades the great.
Topic: Guilt
Source: Irene (act IV, sc, 8)
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Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great.
Topic: Guilt
Source: None
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A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
Topic: Habit
Source: Rasselas (ch. XII)
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The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
Topic: Habit
Source: None
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"He was a very good hater."
Topic: Hatred
Source: Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Johnson (p. 38)
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I like a good hater.
Topic: Hatred
Source: Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Johnson (p. 89)
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Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man
struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground
encumbers him with help?
Topic: Help
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
Topic: Heroism
Source: None
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The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.
Topic: History
Source: None
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Anecdotes are the gleaming toys of history. The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.
Topic: History
Source: None
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We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
Topic: Hope
Source: None
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Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
Topic: Idleness
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
Topic: Idleness
Source: None
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Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
Topic: Ignorance
Source: in reply to lady asking why "pastern" was defined in dictionary as "the knee of a horse"
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A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who
have risen far above him.
Topic: Ingratitude
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
Topic: Innocence
Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (l. 293)
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There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so
much happiness is produced as by a good tavern of inn.
Topic: Inns
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.
Topic: Jesting
Source: London (l. 165)
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Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
[Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]
Topic: Jesting
Source: London (l. 165)
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The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
Topic: Knowledge
Source: None
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Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
Topic: Labor
Source: None
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Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
Topic: Labor
Source: None
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Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
Topic: Labor
Source: None
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Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the
signs of ideas.
Topic: Language
Source: Preface to his English Dictionary
|
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
Topic: Life
Source: None
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The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.
Topic: Life
Source: None
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Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires
to be a hero must drink brandy.
Topic: Liquor
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of
life.
Topic: Liquor
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
Topic: Literature
Source: None
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London! the needy villain's general home,
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome!
With eager thirst, by folly or by fate,
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.
Topic: London
Source: London (l. 93)
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Round numbers are always false.
Topic: Lying
Source: Johnsoniana--Apothegms, Sentiment, etc., From Hawkin's Collective Addition
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A man would rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be known.
Topic: Lying
Source: None
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The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Topic: Memory
Source: None
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Get together a hundred or two men, however sensible they may be, and you are very likely to have a mob.
Topic: Mob
Source: None
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Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
Topic: Music
Source: None
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Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.
Topic: Music
Source: None
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He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life away in fruitless efforts.
Topic: Nature
Source: None
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He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor.
Topic: Neglect
Source: None
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