"It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached."

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More quotes from: Samuel Johnson

• "A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice. "
• "A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown ..."
• "A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but ..."
• "A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. "
• "A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself. "
• "A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as ..."
• "A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner. "
• "A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting ..."
• "A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted ..."
• "A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of ..."
• "Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted ..."
• "All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently ..."
• "All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it. "
• "All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to ..."
• "Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they ..."
• "Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. "
• "Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does ..."
• "At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest. "
• "Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives. "
• "Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned. "
• "Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend ..."
• "Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen. "
• "Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most ..."
• "Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed. "
• "But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, ..."
• "By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing ..."
• "Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be ..."
• "Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world. "
• "Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not ..."
• "Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. "
• "Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in ..."
• "Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be ..."
• "Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible. "
• "Disease generally begins that equality which death completes. "
• "Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man ..."
• "Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his ..."
• "Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and ..."
• "Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what ..."
• "Exercise is labor without weariness. "
• "Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor. "
• "Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the ..."
• "Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it. "
• "From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to ..."
• "Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part ..."
• "Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance. "
• "He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either ..."
• "He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade. "
• "He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great. "
• "He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. "
• "He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing ..."
• "He who praises everybody, praises nobody. "
• "He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do ..."
• "Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little ..."
• "I am aware that by many persons, it is considered in the nature of a ..."
• "I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have ..."
• "I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to ..."
• "I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just. "
• "I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a ..."
• "I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has ..."
• "I will be conquered; I will not capitulate. "
• "I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know ..."
• "I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other ..."
• "If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will ..."
• "If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are ..."

• "Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance. "
• "Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. "
• "It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability. "
• "It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, ..."
• "It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, ..."
• "It is better to live rich than to die rich. "
• "It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes ..."
• "It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong ..."
• "It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation. "
• "It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so ..."
• "It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be ..."
• "It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying ..."
• "Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. "
• "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we ..."
• "Language is the dress of thought. "
• "Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with. "
• "Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted ..."
• "Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of ..."
• "Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. "
• "Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment. "
• "Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation ..."
• "Love is only one of many passions. "
• "Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise. "
• "Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed. "
• "Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance. "
• "Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them ..."
• "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money. "
• "No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with ..."
• "No man was ever great by imitation. "
• "No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a ..."
• "No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. "
• "No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a ..."
• "Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk ..."
• "Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always ..."
• "Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment. "
• "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. "
• "Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable. "
• "Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. "
• "One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for ..."
• "Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. "
• "Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up ..."
• "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. "
• "Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and ..."
• "Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. "
• "Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. "
• "Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you ..."
• "Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement. "
• "Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly ..."
• "Reproof on her lips, but a smile in her eyes. "
• "Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy ..."
• "Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged. "
• "Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best. "
• "Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. "
• "Sings. Hope in every sphere of life is a privilege that attaches to action. No ..."
• "Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything. "
• "Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both. "
• "So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two ..."
• "So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the ..."
• "Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are ..."
• "Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have ..."
• "Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of ..."
• "Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in ..."
• "That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong ..."

• "The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, ..."
• "The chief glory of every people arises from its authors. "
• "The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. ..."
• "The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect ..."
• "The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed ..."
• "The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking. "
• "The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking ..."
• "The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from ..."
• "The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better ..."
• "The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it ..."
• "The true art of memory is the art of attention. "
• "The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him ..."
• "The two offices of memory are collection and distribution. "
• "The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how ..."
• "The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity. "
• "The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of ..."
• "The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going ..."
• "The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as ..."
• "The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty. "
• "Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but ..."
• "There are charms made only for distant admiration. "
• "There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, ..."
• "There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that ..."
• "There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness ..."
• "They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master. "
• "Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give ..."
• "This man [Lord Chesterfield] I thought had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, ..."
• "This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive. "
• "Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not ..."
• "Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence ..."
• "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to ..."
• "To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man ..."
• "To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few ..."
• "To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly. "
• "To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self. "
• "To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity. "
• "Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle. "
• "Truth, Sir, is a cow, which will yield such people no more milk, and so ..."
• "We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never ..."
• "We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and ..."
• "We could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod of Cooks. "
• "We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to ..."
• "Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a ..."
• "What is easy is seldom excellent. "
• "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. "
• "What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that ..."
• "What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with ..."
• "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is ..."
• "When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his ..."
• "When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation. "
• "When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much ..."
• "When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land. "
• "Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel. "
• "Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up ..."
• "Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him ..."
• "Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor. "
• "Words are but the signs of ideas. "
• "You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in ..."
• "You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do ..."
• "You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, ..."
• "You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon ..."
• "You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done ..."
• "Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not ..."