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The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
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Our aspirations are our possibilities.
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
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A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
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Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life.
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Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness.
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In questions of law or of fact conscience is very often confounded with opinion. No man's conscience can tell him the rights of another man they must be known by rational investigation or historical inquiry.
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We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
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Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.
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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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Language is the dress of thought.
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There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
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Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.
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To read, write, and converse in due proportions, is, therefore, the business of a man of letters.
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He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.
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We often need reminding even if we do not often need educating.
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To scatter praise or blame without regard to justice is to destroy the distinction of good and evil. Many have no other test of actions than general opinion and all are so far influenced by a sense of reputation that they are often restrained by fear of reproach, and excited by hope of honour, when other principles have lost their power.
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The dependant who cultivates delicacy in himself very little consults his own tranquillity.
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A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical regard to morals and religion he may be learning not to live but to reason... while the chief use of his volumes is unthought of, his mind is unaffected, and his life is unreformed.
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No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
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