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Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown their form or told their use.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
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Unless a woman has an amorous heart, she is a dull companion.
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The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
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There is no idleness, by which we are so easily seduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has something to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.
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Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.
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The vicious count their years virtuous, their acts.
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The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love, like being enlivened with champagne.
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All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
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Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.
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None of the projects or designs which exercise the mind of man are equally subject to obstructions and disappointments with the pursuit of fame.
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To do nothing is in everyone's power.
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Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner.
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We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide.
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We are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness, endeared by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us time to form distinctions in our own favor
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If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.
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Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.
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Want of tenderness is want of parts, and is no less a proof of stupidity than depravity.
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The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.
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No man can perform so little as not to have reason to congratulate himself on his merits, when he beholds the multitude that live in total idleness, and have never yet endeavoured to be useful.
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