Quotes from Samuel Johnson

There is always something a woman will prefer to the truth.

As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

...Mr. Hanway endeavours to show, that the consumption of tea is injurious to the interest of our country.... he is to expect little justice from the author of this extract, a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool, who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.

...without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

Golf is a game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.