Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.
– Samuel Johnson
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
– Samuel Johnson
Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.
– Samuel Johnson
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
– Samuel Johnson
Round numbers are always false.
– Samuel Johnson
Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.
– Samuel Johnson
Whoever envies another confesses his superiority.
– Samuel Johnson
This is one of the disadvantages of wine: it makes a man mistake words for thought.
– Samuel Johnson
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
– Samuel Johnson
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
– Samuel Johnson
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
– Samuel Johnson
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.
– Samuel Johnson
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
– Samuel Johnson
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
– Samuel Johnson
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
– Samuel Johnson
Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?
– Samuel Johnson
Knock the “t” off the “can’t.”
– Samuel Johnson
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
– Samuel Johnson
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
– Samuel Johnson
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
– Samuel Johnson
Grief is a species of idleness.
– Samuel Johnson
You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.
– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) British author.
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.
– Samuel Johnson
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
– Samuel Johnson
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
– Samuel Johnson
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
– Samuel Johnson
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
– Samuel Johnson
Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
– Samuel Johnson
Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own
– Samuel Johnson
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
– Samuel Johnson
No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.
– Samuel Johnson
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
– Samuel Johnson
The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
– Samuel Johnson
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.
– Samuel Johnson
Politeness is fictitious benevolence.
– Samuel Johnson
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
– Samuel Johnson
Large offers and sturdy rejections are among the most common topics of falsehood.
– Samuel Johnson
An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.
– Samuel Johnson
The vicious count their years; virtuous, their acts.
– Samuel Johnson
The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure.
– Samuel Johnson
Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether your flattery is worth having.
– Samuel Johnson
All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
– Samuel Johnson
Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.
– Samuel Johnson