"Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable."
Read quote
4 likes
Quote collection
Samuel Johnson quotes (page 54 of 88)
1.7K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"To me - the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."
Read quote
4 likes
"There is a frightful interval between the seed and the timber."
Read quote
4 likes
"The first step to greatness is to be honest."
Read quote
4 likes
"[W]ith an unquiet mind, neither exercise, nor diet, nor physick can be of much use."
Read quote
3 likes
"Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat."
Read quote
3 likes
"Judgment is forced upon us by experience"
Read quote
3 likes
"If you want to be a writer, then write. Write every day!"
Read quote
3 likes
"It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure."
Read quote
3 likes
"Prosperity's right hand is industry and her left hand is frugality."
Read quote
3 likes
"As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor."
Read quote
3 likes
"Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction produces rivalry."
Read quote
3 likes
"Assertion is not argument; to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct."
Read quote
3 likes
"A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine."
Read quote
3 likes
"There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow."
Read quote
3 likes
"You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good."
Read quote
3 likes
"1. Turn all care out of your head as soon as you mount the chaise. 2. Do not think about frugality: your health is worth more than it can cost. 3. Do not continue any day's journey to fatigue. 4. Take now and then a day's rest. 5. Get a smart seasickness if you can. 6. Cast away all anxiety, and keep your mind easy. This last direction is the principal; with an unquiet mind neither exercise, nor diet, nor physic can be of much use."
Read quote
3 likes
"The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered."
Read quote
3 likes
"If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science."
Read quote
3 likes
"How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?"
Read quote
3 likes