Samuel Johnson quotes

He that fails in his endeavours after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight ... those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendour of beneficence. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity ... or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if thos ... e are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be superadded. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Long-expected one and twenty
Ling'ring year at last is flown, ...
Pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty,
Great Sir John, are all your own. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

If the guardian or the mother
Tell the woes of willful waste, ...
Scorn their counsel and their pother,
You can hang or drown at last. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Loosened from the minor's tether;
Free to mortgage or to sell, ...
Wild as wind, and light as feather
Bid the slaves of thrift farewell. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm ... at one end and a fool at the other. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures i ... mmoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment. LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »

1 2 3 NEXT

The Columbia World of Quotations © 1996, Columbia University Press.
Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. Except as otherwise permitted by written agreement, the following are prohibited: copying substantial portions or the entirety of the work in machine readable form, making multiple printouts thereof, and other uses of the work inconsistent with U.S. and applicable foreign copyright and related laws.

Translations