B.S. Johnson Quotes

All severity that does not tend to increase good, or prevent evil, is idle.

Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come.

Philosophers 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.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

Learn that the present hour alone is man's.

Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.

Almost all the moral good which is left among us is the apparent effect of physical evil.

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

The violence of war admits no distinction; the lance, that is lifted at guilt and power, will sometimes fall on innocence and gentleness.

Age is rarely despised but when it is, contemptible.

Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulosity of age.

I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.

Long customs are not easily broken; he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain; and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.

The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.

A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

Books without the knowledge of life are useless.

He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.

I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.

Of all the grief's that harass the distressed; sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.

When female minds are embittered by age or solitude, their malignity is generally exerted in a rigorous and spiteful superintendence of domestic trifles.

As any action or posture, long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs, so the mind likewise is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas.

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain.

He endearing elegance of female friendship.

Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.

There are occasions on which all apology is rudeness.

He who endeavors to please must appear pleased.

We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.

They make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty.

Faults and defects every work of man must have.

All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied.

Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.

Men, however distinguished by external accidents or intrinsick qualities, have all the same wants, the same pains, and, as far as the senses are consulted, the same pleasures.

The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.

"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry; whether ... learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames. Intentions must be gathered from acts.

If a man has a science to learn he must regularly and resolutely advance.

Nothing has tended more to retard the advancement of science than the disposition in vulgar minds to vilify what they cannot comprehend.

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.

Smoking is a shocking thing - blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us.

The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today

I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.