Samuel Johnson
168 quotations
Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.
Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.
Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.
Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
It is better to live rich, than to die rich.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.
Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
Security will produce danger.
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.
Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.
Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.
If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.
Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.
When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.
Round numbers are always false.
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.