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Wine makes a man better pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

—  Samuel Johnson

A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.

—  Samuel Johnson

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value to its scarcity.

—  Samuel Johnson

I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

—  Samuel Johnson

Pity is not natural to man. Children and savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; but we have not pity unless we wish to relieve him.

—  Samuel Johnson

Much may be made of a Scotsman if he be caught young.

—  Samuel Johnson

I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me.

—  Samuel Johnson

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

—  Samuel Johnson

On Sir Joshua Reynolds's observing that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Yes, Sir, no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

—  Samuel Johnson

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.

—  Samuel Johnson