Quote

Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished, and are unable to finish them, having prescribed to themselves such a degree of exactness as human diligence can scarcely ontain.

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
Half
Unable
Executors
Human
Finish
Labours
Humans
Labour
Exactness
Many
Send
Prescribed
Writing
Degree
Diligence
Life
Degrees
Unfinished
Leave
Scarcely
Chance
Abroad

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Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
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None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
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A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.
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That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
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No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
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In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.
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The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside
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In a Man's Letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirrour of his breast.
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Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.
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The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
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Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.
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By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen. I hope I see things from a greater distance.
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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
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To purchase Heaven has gold the power? Can gold remove the mortal hour? In life can love be bought with gold? Are friendship's pleasures to be sold? No--all that's worth a wish--a thought, Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought. Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind, Let nobler views engage thy mind.
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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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Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.
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A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.
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The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.
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Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, - judgement, to estimate things at their true value.
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Every man, however hopeless his pretensions may appear, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation some art by which he imagines that the attention of the world will be attracted some quality, good or bad, which discriminates him from the common herd of mortals, and by which others may be persuaded to love, or compelled to fear him.
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