"There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly,--but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. i. 1775.

"There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776.

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iii. 1776.

"Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776.

"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. iv. 1776.

"All this [wealth] excludes but one evil,--poverty."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.

"Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.

"When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.

"He was so generally civil that nobody thanked him for it."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vi. Chap. ix. 1777.

"Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. iii. 1778.

"Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of "The Natural History of Iceland," from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly (Ch. lxxii. Concerning snakes) thus: "There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.""

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. iv. 1778.

"As the Spanish proverb says, "He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him," so it is in travelling,--a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. v. 1778.

"The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. vi. 1778.

"I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing." . . . There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false.""

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779.

"Claret is the liquor for boys, port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. viii. 1779.

"A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.

"Of Dr. Goldsmith he said, "No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had.""

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.

"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. vii. Chap. x.

"The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ii.

"Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781.

"My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merits handsomely allowed."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781.

"I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1783.

"He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. v. 1784.

"You see they 'd have fitted him to a T."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784.

"I have found you an argument; I am not obliged to find you an understanding."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784.

"Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. ix. 1784.

"Blown about with every wind of criticism."

Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. x. 1784.

"If the man who turnips cries Cry not when his father dies, 'T is a proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father."

Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 30.

"He was a very good hater."

Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 39.

"The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public."

Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 58.

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

Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 154.

"Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true."

Johnsoniana. Piozzi, 178.

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

Johnsoniana. Hawkins. 197.

"Round numbers are always false."

Johnsoniana. Hawkins. 235.

"As with my hat upon my head I walk'd along the Strand, I there did meet another man With his hat in his hand."

Johnsoniana. George Steevens. 310.

"Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult."

Johnsoniana. Hannah More. 467.

"The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone."

Johnsoniana. Northcote. 487.

"Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.""

Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 600.

"His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly."

Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 604.

"Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England."

Johnsoniana. Kearsley. 606.

"I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence."

Johnsoniana. Seward. 617.

"This world, where much is to be done and little to be known."

Prayers and Meditations. Against inquisitive and perplexing Thoughts.

"Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people."

Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 20, 1773.

"A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet."

Tour to the Hebrides. Sept. 30, 1773.

"The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience."

Pitt's Reply to Walpole. Speech, March 6, 1741.

"Towering in the confidence of twenty-one."

Letter to Bennet Langton. Jan. 9, 1758.

"Gloomy calm of idle vacancy."

Letter to Boswell. Dec. 8, 1763.

"For his chaste Muse employ'd her heaven-taught lyre None but the noblest passions to inspire, Not one immoral, one corrupted thought, One line which, dying, he could wish to blot."

Prologue to Thomson's Coriolanus.

"Women, like princes, find few real friends."

Advice to a Lady.

"What is your sex's earliest, latest care, Your heart's supreme ambition? To be fair."

Advice to a Lady.