Samuel Johnson

English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)

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

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.

Grief is a species of idleness.

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.

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

Being in a ship is like being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

Americans are a race of convicts and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

You must have taken great pains, sir; you could not naturally been so very stupid.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

I have found you an argument: but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.