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Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

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
Young
May
Much
Made
Nationalism
Caught
War

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Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness.
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It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
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Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry whether ... learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames. Intentions must be gathered from acts.
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I fly from pleasure, said the prince, because pleasure has ceased to please I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.
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Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.
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The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation.
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
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An Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say.
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It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.
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The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.
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Example is always more efficacious than precept.
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It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.
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Spring is the season of gaiety, and winter of terror in spring the heart of tranquility dances to the melody of the groves, and the eye of benevolence sparkles at the sight of happiness and plenty: in winter, compassion melts at universal calamity, and the tear of softness starts at the wailing of hunger and the cries of the creation in distress
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Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
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Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.
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Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.
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Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe.
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A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
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Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood it is the crime of cowards.
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All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
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