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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.
Samuel Johnson
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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Bookseller
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
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Honest
Flattery
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Honour
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Suppresses
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Mischief
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Political liberty is only good insofar as it produces private liberty.
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I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.
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It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.
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It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.
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He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
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The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
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New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
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Health is certainly more valuable than money, because it is by health that money is procured.
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Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood it is the crime of cowards.
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Where there is emulation, there will be vanity where there is vanity, there will be folly.
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Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who is there does not sometimes hazard it for the enjoyment of an hour?
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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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Truth allows no choice.
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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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Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
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A fallible being will fail somewhere.
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All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
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Riches seldom make their owners rich.
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The heroes of literary history have been no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved.
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The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.
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