Samuel Johnson
England
18 Sep 1709 // 13 Dec 1784
Writer
18 Sep 1709 // 13 Dec 1784
Writer
Quotes
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If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle
If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still
If in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion
Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords
He who writes much will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything
He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces
He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood
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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