Quote

You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do but a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.

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
Love
Taste
Sail
Oar
Think
Says
Disgusting
Contented
Thinking
Littles
Streams
Stroke
Little
Longing
Strokes
Without
Fellow
Johnson
Much
Reputation
Flattery
Richardson
Every
Fellows
Quietly
Froth
Always
Contrary
Stream
Disgusts

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Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.
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He that is pushing his predecessors into the gulf of obscurity, cannot but sometimes suspect, that he must himself sink in like manner, and, as he stands upon the same precipice, be swept away with the same violence.
Samuel Johnson
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Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health.
Samuel Johnson
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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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I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
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Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
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No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender officiousness and, therefore, no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained.
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Wretched un-idea'd girls.
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A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
Samuel Johnson
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Shakespeare never had more than 6 lines together without a fault.
Samuel Johnson
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The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other.
Samuel Johnson
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Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.
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The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.
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The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.
Samuel Johnson
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Among the calamities of war may be numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.
Samuel Johnson
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It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
Samuel Johnson
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The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity.
Samuel Johnson
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All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
Samuel Johnson
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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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They make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty.
Samuel Johnson