414 quotes
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)
Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)
No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.
The Idler (1758)
Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.
The Tragedy of Irene (1749)
I am glad that he thanks God for anything.
It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say.
A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
The Rambler (1750)
A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)
Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)