Quote

There is no idleness, by which we are so easily seduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has something to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.

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
Making
Rapidly
Business
Idleness
Place
Neglected
Must
Perpetual
Something
Appearance
Dignifies
Keeps
Hurries
Easily
Seduced
Imagine
Agitation

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Those who suppress freedom always do so in the name of law and order. - John V. Lindsay No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.
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We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
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Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.
Samuel Johnson
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In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.
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Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.
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Life of Ages, richly poured, Love of God unspent and free, Flowing in the Prophet's word And the People's liberty! Never was to chosen race That unstinted tide confined Thine is every time and place, Fountain sweet of heart and mind!
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Wickedness is always easier than virtue for it takes the short cut to everything.
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Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood it is the crime of cowards.
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Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.
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Faults and defects every work of man must have.
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Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on coarse occasions, we do not easily receive strong impressions, or delightful images and words to which we are nearly strangers, whenever they occur, draw that attention on themselves which they should transmit to other things.
Samuel Johnson
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Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.
Samuel Johnson
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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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To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
Samuel Johnson
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Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.
Samuel Johnson
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Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Samuel Johnson
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Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.
Samuel Johnson
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The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation.
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If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.
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Long customs are not easily broken he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.
Samuel Johnson