Samuel Johnson

Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 It is by affliction chiefly read more

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 It is by affliction chiefly that the heart of man is purified, and that the thoughts are fixed on a better state. Prosperity has power to intoxicate the imagination, to fix the mind upon the present scene, to produce confidence and elation, and to make him who enjoys affluence and honors forget the hand by which they were bestowed. It is seldom that we are otherwise than by affliction awakened to a sense of our imbecility, or taught to know how little all our acquisitions can conduce to safety or quiet, and how justly we may inscribe to the superintendence of a higher power those blessings which in the wantonness of success we considered as the attainments of our policy and courage.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which
he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do read more

I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which
he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man
who is zealous for nothing."