Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.
Samuel JohnsonNo place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
Samuel JohnsonWhen a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment.
Samuel JohnsonThe good of our present state is merely comparative, and the evil which every man feels will be sufficient to disturb and harass him if he does not know how much he escapes.
Samuel JohnsonI know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.
Samuel Johnson