Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit and learning.
Samuel JohnsonThat is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...
Samuel JohnsonOur minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them.
Samuel JohnsonMen who have flattered themselves into this opinion of their own abilities, look down on all who waste their lives over books, as a race of inferior beings condemned by nature to perpetual pupilage, and fruitlessly endeavouring to remedy their barrenness by incessant cultivation, or succour their feebleness by subsidiary strength. They presume that none would be more industrious than they, if they were not more sensible of deficiences; and readily conclude, that he who places no confidence in his own powers owes his modesty only to his weakness.
Samuel Johnson