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The hostility perpetually exercised between one man and another, is caused by the desire of many for that which only few can possess. Every man would be rich, powerful, and famous yet fame, power, and riches, are only the names of relative conditions, which imply the obscurity, dependence, and poverty of greater numbers.

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
Men
Greater
Famous
Exercised
Powerful
Fame
Obscurity
Desire
Poverty
Hostility
Another
Conditions
Dependence
Power
Numbers
Caused
Many
Humanity
Relative
Every
Rich
Possess
Imply
Would
Names
Riches
Perpetually

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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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Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.
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Present opportunities are neglected, and attainable good is slighted, by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages.
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To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise.
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Your aspirations are your possibilities.
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Men become friends by a community of pleasures.
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He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road, till some accident intercepts his journey.
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The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
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Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.
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Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.
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By writing, you learn to write.
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The whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death.
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Life of Ages, richly poured, Love of God unspent and free, Flowing in the Prophet's word And the People's liberty! Never was to chosen race That unstinted tide confined Thine is every time and place, Fountain sweet of heart and mind!
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I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
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All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.
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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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Philosophy has often attempted to repress insolence by asserting that all conditions are leveled by death a position which, however it may defect the happy, will seldom afford much comfort to the wretched.
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Every human being whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge.
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You cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time contriving not to have tedious hours.
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Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished, and are unable to finish them, having prescribed to themselves such a degree of exactness as human diligence can scarcely ontain.
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