Google
|
The quotations are arranged by author name.
Current counts: Authors: 8,146. Quotations: 38,970
Select the first character of the author's last name that you want to look at:
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
|
| Samuel Johnson
As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly. Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some
superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made
a deeper search, or wider survey than others, and detected faults and
follies which escape vulgar observation.
Christmas is the family time, the good time of the year. Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy. Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected. Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind. Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark. Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every man has a right to knock him down for it. French officers will always lead, if the soldiers will follow: and English soldiers will always follow, if their officers will lead. Friendship, 'the wine of life,' said Boswell, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed. And Dr. Johnson added to this A man, Sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair. He that would pass the latter part of life with honor and decency must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young. He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly. Hell is paved with good intentions. If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time. Journals are daily multiplied without increase of knowledge. The tale of the morning paper is told again in the evening, and the narratives of the evening are bought again in the morning.Kindness is in our power, but fondness is not.Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise. Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its values only to its scarcity. Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. Sir, I have found you an explanation, but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.Subtility and harmony united are still feeble, when opposed to truth.Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest. The future is purchased by the present. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book. The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little. The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity. There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good. This merriment of Parsons is mighty offensive.Trade’s proud empire hastes to swift decay. We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.Whatever enlarges hope will also exhalt courage. When speculation has done its worse, two and two still make four. Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. |
|
Sports Quotations.
Show Business Quotations.
|