Samuel Johnson
England
18 Sep 1709 // 13 Dec 1784
Writer
18 Sep 1709 // 13 Dec 1784
Writer
Quotes
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He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance
Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test
Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays