Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements. (Samuel Johnson)
There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman. (Samuel Johnson)
He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into the short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind. (Samuel Johnson)
No mind is much employed upon the present recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. (Samuel Johnson)
It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession. (Samuel Johnson)
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which if not a virtue, is the groundwork of a virtue. (Samuel Johnson)
There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman in marriage. (Samuel Johnson)
In a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of the enemy. At this time the task of news-writers is easy, they have nothing to do but to tell that a battle is expected. . . (Samuel Johnson)
Language is the dress of thought every time you talk your mind is on parade. (Samuel Johnson)
Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue. (Samuel Johnson)
This man Chesterfield, I thought, had been a Lord among wits but I find he is only a wit among Lords. (Samuel Johnson)
The mind is refrigerated by interruption the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject the reader is weary, he suspects not why and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied. (Samuel Johnson)
One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts. (Samuel Johnson)
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind. (Samuel Johnson)