If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
— Samuel Johnson
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.
In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.
Actions are visible, though motives are secret.
You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Language is the dress of thought.
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.
Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.
You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the sharper sword.
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
The future is purchased by the present.
Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.
Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
Love is only one of many passions.
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
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.
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.
Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.
I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.
When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
