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Quote by Samuel Johnson

“Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.”

Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

Work

The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

The Rambler is a series of periodical papers that were published in three separate volumes, spanning the years 1750, 1751, and 1752. Each volume consists of a variety of essays and articles, covering a range of topics including social issues, literature, and philosophy. The work is notable for its contribution to the development of the essay form and its influence on subsequent literary works. more

Author

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was an English writer, poet, and lexicographer, renowned for his comprehensive English dictionary, 'A Dictionary of the English Language', published in 1755. His distinctive writing style and wit have cemented his place as a significant figure in the history of English literature. more

“I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful; for not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill but is common to human kind.”

Source: The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...

“We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.”

Desire Humanity Pleasure Danger Motive Deceived Animated Fallacy

Book:Selected poetry and prose

Source: Selected poetry and prose

“It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of exasperating it by remedies.”

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With Murphy's Essay

“The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the greater part of mankind must be lost in empty wishes and painful comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and our discontent at the appearances of unequal distribution soothed and appeased.”

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius

“The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man shrinks to his natural dimensions, and throws aside the ornaments or disguises which he feels in privacy to be useless incumbrances, and to lose all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”

Source: The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with his life, and notes on his Lives of the poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In eleven volumes ...

“The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate.”

Humanity Conditions Thousand Office Regard Mere Species Tenderness

Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler

“Every man has frequent grievances which only the solicitude of friendship will discover and remedy, and which would remain for ever unheeded in the mighty heap of human calamity, were it only surveyed by the eye of general benevolence equally attentive to every misery.”

Men Humans Eye Humanity Misery Every Man Remedy Calamity Benevolence Grievance Solicitude

Book:The Rambler: In Four Volumes..

Source: The Rambler: In Four Volumes..

“I love doing logos. I've been a graphic artist all my life.”

Artist Graphic Logos Graphic Artist

Author:Tim Allen

“Faults and defects every work of man must have.”