Samuel Johnson

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

We are inclined to believe those whom we don not know because they have never deceived us.

Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.

Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

In the vain laughter of folly wisdom hears half its applause.

Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.

I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there, but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page.

Be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

He liked to like people, therefore people liked him.

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

Ignorant people think it is the noise which fighting cats make that is so aggravating, but it ain’t so; it is the sickening grammar that they use.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

Everything in Nature contains all the powers of Nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff.

Few sinners are saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon.

The report of my death was an exaggeration.