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

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Sir, if a man has a mind to prance, he must study at Christ Church and All Souls.
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In misery's darkest cavern known, His useful care was ever nigh Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die.
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Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds! Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue!
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Being married to those sleepy-souled women is just like playing at cards for nothing: no passion is excited and the time is filled up. I do not, however, envy a fellow one of those honeysuckle wives for my part, as they are but creepers at best and commonly destroy the tree they so tenderly cling about.
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Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
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It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.
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Discord generally operates in little things it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.
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The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.
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Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.
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Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle for the calamities of life, like the necessities of Nature, are calls to labor and diligence.
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No man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.
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The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
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If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
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It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
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Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.
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We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.
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Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestic animosities allow no cessation.
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Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?
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