Patriotism is the last refuge ...

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Our aspirations are our possib...

Our aspirations are our possibilities.

He that tries to recommend (Sh...

He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in 'Hierocles', who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen

Quotation is the highest compl...

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author

Classical quotation is the par...

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

Large offers and sturdy reject...

Large offers and sturdy rejections are among the most common topics of falsehood

Revenge is an act of passion; ...

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

Whoever envies another confess...

Whoever envies another confesses his superiority

Suspicion is not less an enemy...

Suspicion is not less an enemy to virtue than to happiness; he that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt

Music is the only sensual plea...

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice

Wine gives a man nothing... it...

Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

Of all the griefs that harass ...

Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

He threatens many that hath in...

He threatens many that hath injured one.

I from the jaws of a gardener'...

I from the jaws of a gardener's bitch
Snatched this bone and then leapt the ditch.

Let them call it mischief;

Let them call it mischief;
Then it is past and prosper'd, 'twill be virtue.

Samuel Johnson 03.03.2018 03:03:03 2299 quotes

In misery's darkest caverns kn...

In misery's darkest caverns known,
His useful care was ever nigh,
Where hopeless Anguish pour'd his groan,
And lonely want retir'd to die.

The stream of Time, which is c...

The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble
fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of
Shakespeare.

Books have always a secret inf...

Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we
cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of
science, though without any desire fixed of improvement, will
grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or
religious treatises, will imperceptibly advance in goodness; the
ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a
lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them.

A man ought to read just as in...

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

What is twice read is commonly...

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