Samuel Johnson Quotes

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

men do not suspect faults which they do not commit

EXCISE — A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

Parts are not to be examined till the whole has been surveyed; there is a kind of intellectual remoteness necessary for the comprehension of any great work in its full design and its true proportions; a close approach shews the smaller niceties, but the beauty of the whole is discerned no longer.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

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

It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy in those who look up to them from a lower station; whether it be that apparent superiority incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of those whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally observed, and have in reality only been more conspicuous than others, not more frequent, or more severe.

There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.

I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me.

A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.

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.

Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win

The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.