“Apologies are seldom of any use.”
Source: The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772
“A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.”
“It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure.”
Source: The beauties of Johnson: choice selections from his works
“He that has too much to do will do something wrong.”
“I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.”
Source: The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals
“It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
“There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible.”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
“I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.”
Source: Essay on the life and genius of Dr. Johnson [by Arthur Murphy] Poems. Rasselas, prince of Abissinia. Letters
“Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.”
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales
“A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished