We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Quote by Samuel Johnson

Topics: Samuel Johnson Quotes

Clear your mind of cant.

Clear your mind of cant.

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the...

You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not - silence is the...

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a...

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a...

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing...

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing...

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice

Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice

The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the...

The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the...

Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of...

Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of...

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done...

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done...

All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it

All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his...

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his...

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavours to appropriate the esteem or...

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavours to appropriate the esteem or...

Of all the griefs that harass the distressed, sure the most bitter is a scornful...

Of all the griefs that harass the distressed, sure the most bitter is a scornful...

When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is...

When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is...

Plain women are always jealous of their husbands. Beautiful women never are. They are always...

Plain women are always jealous of their husbands. Beautiful women never are. They are always...

Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive.

Jealousy, that dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive.

At the very least marriage is a miscarriage of expectation, at its worst a wrenching...

At the very least marriage is a miscarriage of expectation, at its worst a wrenching...