Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

The habit of looking at the best side of any event is worth far more than a thousand pounds a year.

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

Admiration begins where acquaintance ceases.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, Dec. 11, 1750

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The History of Rasselas

It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity of solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretence to dignify their sect with a distinguished name.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, "The Life of Sir Thomas Browne, Kt., M.D."

It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, Aug. 21, 1750

Language is the dress of thought.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Lives of the English Poets

The plaintiff and defendant in an action at law are two men ducking their heads in a bucket, and daring each other to remain longest under water.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, attributed, Day's Collacon

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

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Life of Samuel Johnson

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditation and accurate enquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue, and preserved only to increase the pomp of learning, without considering how many hours have been wasted in vain endeavours, how often imagination has anticipated the praises of futurity, how many statues have risen to the eye of vanity, how many ideal converts have elevated zeal, how often wit has exulted in the eternal infamy of his antagonists, and dogmatism has delighted in the gradual advances of his authority, the immutability of his decrees, and the perpetuity of his power.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, Mar. 23, 1751

Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Life of Samuel Johnson

This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Life of Samuel Johnson

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Essay on Tea

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own, and if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

Books are faithful repositories, which may be a while neglected or forgotten; but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, "Ostig in Sky", A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, December 18, 1750

I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Rasselas

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Boswell's Life of Johnson

He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, attributed, Life of Samuel Johnson

We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Life of Samuel Johnson

What is twice read is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Idler, No. 74

I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, "of memoirs of the court of Augustus", The Works of Samuel Johnson

Resentment is a union of sorrow and malignity, a combination of a passion which all endeavor to avoid, with a passion which all concur to detest.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, December 24, 1751

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. Yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigor three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Rasselas: A Tale

He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, attributed, Life of Samuel Johnson

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

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Life of Samuel Johnson

An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Vanity of Human Wishes

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

SAMUEL JOHNSON,"Johnsoniana", The European Magazine and London Review, January 1785

All power of fancy over reason is a degree of insanity.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

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.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Life of Samuel Johnson

Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Rambler, May 26, 1750

Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, Tour to the Hebrides

Glory is the casual gift of thoughtless crowds.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, attributed, Day's Collacon

Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists.

SAMUEL JOHNSON, The Life of Samuel Johnson