Samuel Johnson

A soldier’s time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption.

Samuel Johnson

A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope.

Samuel Johnson

A transition from an author’s book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city.

Samuel Johnson

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

Samuel Johnson

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Samuel Johnson

A woman of fortune being used the handling of money, spends it judiciously; but a woman who gets the command of money for the first time upon her marriage, has such a gust in spending it, that she throws it away with great profusion.

Samuel Johnson

Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

Samuel Johnson

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Samuel Johnson

Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetic.

Samuel Johnson

Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.

Samuel Johnson