It is observed of gold, by an old epigrammatist, that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it is to be in sorrow.
Samuel JohnsonNo man is defeated without some resentment which will be continued with obstinacy while he believes himself in the right, and asserted with bitterness, if even to his own conscience he is detected in the wrong.
Samuel JohnsonHuman life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Samuel JohnsonThe faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority.
Samuel JohnsonPoetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble to learn a language if we could have all that is written in it just as well in a translation. But as the beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written, we learn the language.
Samuel Johnson