Samuel Johnson

This singularity of his humour made him much observed.

Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; …

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.

The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.

It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them. ... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than …

Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds …

He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is, therefore, become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promises, and by eloquence sometimes sublime and sometimes pathetick. Promise, large …

The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.

I know not whether more is to be dreaded from streets filled with soldiers accustomed to plunder, or from garrets filled with scribblers accustomed to lies.

Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.

Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.

It is commonly observed, that when two Englishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather; they are in haste to tell each other, what each must already know, that it is hot or cold, bright or cloudy, windy or calm.

REVENGE — An act of passion; vengeance of justice.

PENSION — An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.

PATRON — One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.

OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

NETWORK — Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

GRUBSTREET — The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.

EXCISE — A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

ESSAY — A loose sally of the mind; an irregular indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition.

CLUB — An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.