Quote

Of those that spin out trifles and die without a memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they are every day adding some improvement to human life.

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
Many
Importance
Every
Opinion
Flatter
Life
Imagine
Spin
High
Trifles
Dies
Adding
Human
Memorial
Humans
Opinions
Without
Improvement

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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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All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance.
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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 dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity.
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It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.
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This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
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Don't tell me of deception a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear.
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Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.
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That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...
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Fate wings, with every wish, the afflictive dart, Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.
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Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.
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Virtue is too often merely local.
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Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.
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We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable.
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Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus and a writer naturally pleases himself with a performance which owes nothing to the subject.
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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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All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
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We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
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No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.
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Life admits not of delays when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
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