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Timidity is a disease of the mind, obstinate and fatal for a man once persuaded that any impediment is insuperable has given it, with respect to himself, that strength and weight which it had not before.

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
Mind
Persuaded
Men
Fatal
Weight
Disease
Insuperable
Strength
Impediment
Respect
Impediments
Fear
Obstinate
Given
Timidity

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I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.
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Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds! Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue!
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In general those parents have the most reverence who most deserve it for he that lives well cannot be despised.
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Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
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It is good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, and which by great application grew to be called, by the generality of mankind, a particular genius.
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Gayety is to good-humor as perfumes to vegetable fragrance: the one overpowers weak spirits the other recreates and revives them.
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Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.
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Mutual complacency is the atmosphere of conjugal love.
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Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
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Tears are often to be found where there is little sorrow, and the deepest sorrow without any tears.
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I will be conquered I will not capitulate.
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The botanist looks upon the astronomer as a being unworthy of his regard and he that is glowing great and happy by electrifying a bottle wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war and peace.
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There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.
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His virtues walked their narrow round, Nor made a pause, nor left a void And sure the Eternal Master found The single talent well employed.
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Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.
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