Abstinence is as easy for me as temperance would be difficult.

— Samuel Johnson

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization

— Samuel Johnson

Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself being free from flatterers.

— Samuel Johnson

(Adversity is) the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself being especially free from admirers then.

— Samuel Johnson

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state and so is most beneficial to us.

— Samuel Johnson

A fishing-rod was a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

— Samuel Johnson

A fly Sir may sting a stately horse and make him wince but one is but an insect and the other a horse still.

— Samuel Johnson

Alas! Another instance of the triumph of hope over experience.

— Samuel Johnson

A lexicographer a writer of dictionaries a harmless drudge.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson