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The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.

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
Small
Vexation
Evil
Proceeds
Men
Repeated
Continually
Crush
Overwhelming
Misery
Single
Vexations

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To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar
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To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude it is not retreat, but exclusion from mankind. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
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Truth allows no choice.
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Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
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It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.
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Though the discoveries or acquisitions of man are not always adequate to the expectations of his pride, they are at least sufficient to animate his industry.
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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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All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
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It is wonderful what a difference learning makes upon people even in the common intercourse of life, which does not appear to be much connected with it.
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Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
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I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
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The whole power of cunning is privative to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.
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Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
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He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.
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The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.
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The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.
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As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.
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It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.
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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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If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.
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