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Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.

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
Difficult
Anything
Find
Propagates
Suspended
Longer
Silence
Talk

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But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind.
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The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.
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The maxim of Cleobulus, Mediocrity is best, has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.
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To be free it is not enough to beat the system, one must beat the system every day
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Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.
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As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.
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Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.
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Large offers and sturdy rejections are among the most common topics of falsehood.
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Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise.
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Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense.
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The equity of Providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.
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New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
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I fly from pleasure, said the prince, because pleasure has ceased to please I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.
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The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country.
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There is a frightful interval between the seed and the timber.
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You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.
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Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
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An epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature.
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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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Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
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