Samuel Johnson Quotes

That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?

I look upon every day to be lost in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim.

Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

"Some," answered Imlac, "have indeed said that the soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.

I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.

Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

CLUB — An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.

I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.

He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.

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

A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.

We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinions because we very often differ from ourselves.

Blown about with every wind of criticism.

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