Ignorance is mere privation by which nothing can be produced: it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction: and, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget.
Samuel JohnsonWhen I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
Samuel JohnsonI hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.
Samuel JohnsonI inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.
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 Johnson