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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.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who while he was chill was harmless but when warmth gave him strength, exerted it in poison.
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Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent conciousness of guilt. Alas, it is only wisdom which perceives this tragedy.
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The future is bought with the present.
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The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.
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He that pines with hunger, is in little care how others shall be fed. The poor man is seldom studious to make his grandson rich.
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No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.
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Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.
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Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world.
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None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
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Your aspirations are your possibilities.
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All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.
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The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
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Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.
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The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.
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There are indeed, in the present corruption of mankind, many incitements to forsake truth: the need of palliating our own faults and the convenience of imposing on the ignorance or credulity of others so frequently occur so many immediate evils are
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Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.
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The whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death.
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To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton.
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