Samuel Johnson Quotes

Power and wealth supply the place of each other. Power confers the ability of gratifying our desire without the consent of others. Wealth enables us to obtain the consent of others to our gratification. Power, simply considered, whatever it confers on one, must take from another. Wealth enables its owner to give to others, by taking only from himself. Power pleases the violent and proud: wealth delights the placid and the timorous. Youth therefore flies at power, and age grovels after riches.

I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task."

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

I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.

This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confessed — Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

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.

No, Sir, claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men: but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.

My nights are flatulent and unquiet.

Here closed in death th' attentive eyes
That saw the manners in the face.