Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
That favorite subject, Myself.
The scent of Sloth tempts a smug man.
We must take our friends as they are.
One must be strict even in little things.
All censure of a man's self is oblique praise.
If a man is prodigal, he cannot be truly generous.
There is indeed a strange prejudice against Quotation.
In every picture there should be shade as well as light.
But what can a man see of a library being one day in it?
What an insignificant life is this which I am now leading!
I find I journalize too tediously. Let me try to abbreviate.
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically.
The man who stops making new friends eventually will have none.
Many infidels have maintained that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion.
My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether.
The connection between authors, printers, and booksellers must be kept up.
Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.
Influence must ever be in proportion to property; and it is right it should.
He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
I have seen many a bear led by a man: but I never before saw a man led by a bear.
There is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.
A good pun may be admitted among the smaller excellencies of lively conversation.
We had some port, and drank damnation to the play and eternal remorse to the author.
I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
Melancholy cannot be clearly proved to others, so it is better to be silent about it.
It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.
When a man is familiar with many people he must expect many disagreeable familiarizations.
Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.
The pleasure of gratifying whim is very great. It is known only by those who are whimsical.
I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of that fragrant leaf than Johnson.
I think there is a blossom about me of something more distinguished than the generality of mankind.
Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.
[A]s a lady adjusts her dress before a mirror, a man adjusts his character by looking at his journal.
I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnson.
A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.
A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.
As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.
If a man who is born to a fortune cannot make himself easier and freer than those who are not, he gains nothing.
In an orchard there should be enough to eat, enough to lay up, enough to be stolen, and enough to rot on the ground.
I have discovered that we may be in some degree whatever character we choose. Besides, practice forms a man to anything.
In every place, where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers.
I, who have no sisters or brothers, look with some degree of innocent envy on those who may be said to be born to friends.
Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.
A woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinter legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to see it done at all.
If venereal delight and the power of propagating the species were permitted only to the virtuous, it would make the world very good.
I argued that the chastity of women was of much more consequence than that of men, as the property and rights of families depend upon it.
What a curious creature is man; with what a variety of powers and faculties is he endued; yet how easily is he disturbed and put out of order.
When we know exactly all a man's views and how he comes to speak and act so and so, we lose any respect for him, though we may love and admire him.
O charitable philosopher, I beg you to help me. My mind is weak but my soul is strong. Kindle that soul, and the sacred fire shall never be extinguished.