Samuel Johnson Quotes

A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.

There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.

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

"Enlarge my life with multitude of days!"
In health, in sickness, thus the suppliant prays:
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know
That life protracted is protracted woe.

Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility.

Network: Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections [....]

Reticulated: Made of network; formed with interstitial vacuities.

There Poetry shall tune her sacred voice,
And wake from ignorance the Western World.

Every man, who proposes to grow eminent by learning, should carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty of excellence, and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of labour, and that labour, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward.

No man is much pleased with a companion, who does not increase, in some respect, his fondness for himself.

Towering is the confidence of twenty-one.

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

A secret in his mouth, is like a wild bird put into a cage; whose door no sooner opens, but 'tis out.

Wretched un-idea'd girls.

Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning than the disposition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.