Quote

Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which, at the time of regular payment, will be missed and regretted.

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
Time
Dues
Allotted
Like
Spent
Regretted
Advantage
Payment
Beyond
Portion
Whatever
Portions
Money
Anticipation
Nature
Missed
Certain
Regular
Snatch

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Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will shake all the branches. Advice cherished by Samuel Johnson that that, if one is to master any subject, one must first discover its general principles.
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We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.
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Conjecture as to things useful, is good but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, is very idle.
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All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
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He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road, till some accident intercepts his journey.
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Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
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All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.
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The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.
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Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.
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As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.
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They who most loudly clamour for liberty do not most liberally grant it.
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I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
Samuel Johnson
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I would consent to have a limb amputated to recover my spirits
Samuel Johnson
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Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.
Samuel Johnson
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
Samuel Johnson
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No evil is insupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.
Samuel Johnson
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All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
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Modern writers are the moons of literature they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
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To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise.
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Books, says Lord Bacon, can never teach us the use of books the student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice. No man should think so highly of himself as to think he can receive but little light from books no one so meanly, as to believe he can discover nothing but what is to be learned from them.
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