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They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than the restlessness of a vacant mind, that they are not so much led by hope as driven by disgust, and wish rather to leave the country than to see the town.

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
Country
Leave
Town
Great
Cities
Noise
Much
Rather
Enjoyed
Mind
Hope
Towns
Disgust
Wish
Driven
Vacant
Desire
City
Restlessness
Littles
Return
Disgusting
Little
Already
Crowds

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Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature.
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A man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It is a miserable thing when the conversation can only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that.
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Such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labor and rest, hurry and retirement, endear each other such are the changes that keep the mind in action: we desire, we pursue, we obtain, we are satiated we desire something else and begin a new pursuit.
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Every other author may aspire to praise the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.
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He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.
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I would advise you, Sir, to study algebra, if you are not an adept already in it: your head would get less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbours about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.
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No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditations and accurate inquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue.
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Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
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There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.
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The truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.
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A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.
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Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
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Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
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The equity of Providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.
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