Samuel Johnson quotes | Thousands Of Quotes

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Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Samuel Johnson

Power

Labor

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

Samuel Johnson

Life

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

Samuel Johnson

May

Prudence

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

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 absolutely no good.

Samuel Johnson

Man

Measure

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Samuel Johnson

Memory

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

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 chief motives to disclose it.

The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

Samuel Johnson

World

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.