Samuel Johnson Quotes

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 young man, who intends no ill,
Believes that none is intended, and therefore
Acts with openness and candor: but his father, having suffered the injuries of fraud, is impelled to suspect, and too often allured to practice it.

While an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

The opinions prevalent in one age, as truths above the reach of controversy, are confuted and rejected in another, and rise again to reception in remoter times. Thus the human mind is kept in motion without progress.

The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.

Your aspirations are your possibilities.

A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the publick to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write.

I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel myself delighted. Man has surely some latent sense for which this place affords no gratification, or he has some desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before he can be happy.

God himself, sir, doesn't propose to judge man until the end of his days. (So why should you and I? ~ this latter part is added by Napoleon Hill)

Such, said Nekayah, is the state of life, none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish it to change again. The world is not yet exhausted. Let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see.

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

Prosperity is too apt to prevent us from examining our conduct; but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.