Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)
British author, linguist and lexicographer.
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
A lady once asked him how he came to define 'pastern', the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as might be expected, he at once answered, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
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..
The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised.
Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.
A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say.
Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.
It is better to live rich, than to die rich.
There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.
ESSAY — A loose sally of the mind; an irregular indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition.
Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies.