Quote

The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any other claim to notice than that they catch hold on present curiosity, and gratify some accidental desire, or produce some temporary conveniency.

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
Desire
Produce
Accidental
Writing
Nation
Authors
Hold
Temporary
Present
Claim
Nations
Notice
Age
Catch
Lasts
Curiosity
Last
Claims
Gratify

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What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.
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To a poet nothing can be useless.
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Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.
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The roads of science are narrow, so that they who travel them, must wither follow or meet one another.
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Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.
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Remember that nothing will supply the want of prudence, and that negligence and irregularity long continued will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.
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Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.
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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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The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.
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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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Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.
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Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.
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Politeness is fictitious benevolence.
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No man should attempt to teach others what he has never learned himself
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Your aspirations are your possibilities.
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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.
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Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.
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When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.
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Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.
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Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
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