It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
Samuel JohnsonPhilosophers there are who try to make themselves believe that this life is happy; but they believe it only while they are saying it, and never yet produced conviction in a single mind.
Samuel JohnsonMadam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.
Samuel JohnsonThere is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.
Samuel Johnson