Quotes by Lexicographers - Page 3

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.
Samuel Johnson
Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not.
Samuel Johnson
I like a good hater.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Samuel Johnson
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
Samuel Johnson
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
Samuel Johnson
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
Samuel Johnson
No man ever yet became great by imitation.
Samuel Johnson
I have found men more kind than I expected and less just.
Samuel Johnson
Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?
Samuel Johnson
Nothing at all will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
Samuel Johnson
The true genius is a mind of large general powers accidentally determined to some particular direction.
Samuel Johnson
Friendship peculiar boon of Heaven The noble mind's delight and pride To men and angels only given To all the lower world denied.
Samuel Johnson
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
Men only become friends by community of pleasures.
Samuel Johnson
Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.
Samuel Johnson
Friendship is a union of spirits a marriage of hearts and the bond there of virtue.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life he will soon find himself left alone.
Samuel Johnson
An old friend never can be found and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.
Samuel Johnson
No man is much pleased with a companion who does not increase in some respect his fondness of himself.
Samuel Johnson
It is foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend as upon the chastity of a wife.
Samuel Johnson
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love like being enlivened with champagne.
Samuel Johnson
A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair.
Samuel Johnson
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Samuel Johnson
The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Samuel Johnson
None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
Samuel Johnson
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.
Samuel Johnson
Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears.
Samuel Johnson
A fishing-rod was a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
Samuel Johnson
O how vain and vile a passion is this fear! What base uncomely things it makes men do.
Samuel Johnson
Round numbers are always false.
Samuel Johnson
He that has much to do will do something wrong.
Samuel Johnson
Example is more efficacious than precept.
Samuel Johnson
Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
Samuel Johnson
A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
For a man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
Samuel Johnson
Eat bread at pleasure drink wine by measure.
Randle Cotgrave
Moderation is commonly firm and firmness is commonly successful.
Samuel Johnson
Abstinence is as easy for me as temperance would be difficult.
Samuel Johnson
One of the disadvantages of wine is that is makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
Samuel Johnson
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
Samuel Johnson
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Samuel Johnson
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected even when it is associated with vice.
Samuel Johnson
Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you haven't courage you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Samuel Johnson
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected even when it is associated with vice.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition no vanity but a calm quiet interchange of sentiments.
Samuel Johnson
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.
Samuel Johnson
Shame arises from the fear of man conscience from the fear of God.
Samuel Johnson
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
Samuel Johnson
A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of everything.
Samuel Johnson
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
Samuel Johnson