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Hope itself is a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Pleasure
Affords
Happiness
Pleasures
Hope
Excess
Pain
Chief
Must
Chiefs
Like
Enjoyed
World
Species
Immoderately
Perhaps
Excesses

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I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
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Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive.
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Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.
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When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
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It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow.
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As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.
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The king who makes war on his enemies tenderly distresses his subjects most cruelly.
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He that never thinks can never be wise.
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A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.
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He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing.
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Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.
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Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
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All theory is against free will all experience is for it.
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What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
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To do nothing is in everyone's power.
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The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.
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A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
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Condemned to Hope's delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day, By sudden blasts or slow decline Our social comforts drop away.
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Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.
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You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
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