Johnson, Samuel

"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."

"Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it."

"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."

"To do nothing is in every man's power."

"Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetick..."

"A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him."

"The chief glory of every people arises from its authors."

"When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped."

"Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense."

"Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance."

"In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath."

"A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself."

"Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best."

"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."

"Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps the chief happiness which this world affords."

"A jest's prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, Never in the tongue of him that makes it."

"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him."

"Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent."

"I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth."

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

"Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable."

"The two offices of memory are collection and distribution."

"I have observed, that in comedy, the best actor plays the part of the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the hero, or fine gentleman. So, in this farce of life, wise men pass their time in mirth, whilst fools only are serious."

"What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

"The mind is seldom quickened to very vigorous operations but by pain, or the dread of pain. We do not disturb ourselves with the detection of fallacies which do us no harm."

"Men seldom give pleasure where they are not pleased themselves."

"All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil."

"Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

"The first years of man make provision for the last."

"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged."

"Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise."

"Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments."

"Words are but the signs of ideas."

"It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done." - in Boswell's Life, 1770

"Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves." - quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy." - quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

"Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." - quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

"Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else." - quoted in James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson

"A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing." - quoted in James Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides

"There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain." - The Rambler