~ Samuel Johnson Quotes ~

[MysteRy]

As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

[MysteRy]

There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.

[MysteRy]

Every man who attacks my belief diminishes in some degree my confidence in it and therefore makes me uneasy and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

[MysteRy]

The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.

[MysteRy]

Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing. When we have made it the next wish is to change again.

[MysteRy]

Men know that women are an overmatch for them and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

[MysteRy]

A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time but they will be remembered and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.

[MysteRy]

Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.

[MysteRy]

John Wesley's conversation is good but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.

[MysteRy]

There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed to trace our own progress in existence by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.

[MysteRy]

That friendship may be at once fond and lasting there must not only be equal virtue on each part but virtue of the same kind; not only the same end must be proposed but the same means must be approved by both.

[MysteRy]

As the Spanish proverb says 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.' So it is with traveling. A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

[MysteRy]

The life of a conscientious clergyman is not easy. I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain. I would rather have chancery suits upon my hands than the cure of souls.

[MysteRy]

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first and pity him afterwards.

[MysteRy]

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do and bark.