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Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past.

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
Always
Time
Progression
Life
Rational
Worthy
Purpose
Past
Better
Must

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Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
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Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
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Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness.
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There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.
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A vow is a snare for sin
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..to write and to live are very different. Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it.
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The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
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Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.
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Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
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You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
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But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind.
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Books without the knowledge of life are useless.
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Reproof should not exhaust its power upon petty failings.
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Men have been wise in many different modes but they have always laughed the same way.
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Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience.
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Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.
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Games are good or bad as to their nature all may be perverted.
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Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.
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Good-humor is a state between gayety and unconcern,--the act or emanation of a mind at leisure to regard the gratification of another.
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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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