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We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty.

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
Live
Duty
Always
Ought
Somebody
Greatest
Endeavours
Pleasure
Exerted
Last
Pleasing
Upon
Endeavor
Hope
Consequence

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I soon found that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressions and that as some bodies, indissoluble by heat, can set the furnace and crucible at defiance, there are min
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I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children and those who marry early, with their partners.
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That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...
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If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.
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Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
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Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
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Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from with'ring life away New forms arise, and diff'rent views engage
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Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
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One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.
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Pour forth thy fervors for a healthful mind, Obedient passions, and a will resigned
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He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
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Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed.
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When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
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God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?
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His virtues walked their narrow round, Nor made a pause, nor left a void And sure the Eternal Master found The single talent well employed.
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If a man is in doubt whether it would be better for him to expose himself to martyrdom or not, he should not do it. He must be convinced that he has a delegation from heaven.
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No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
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Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.
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