Quotes By Samuel Johnson

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

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

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

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

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

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

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.