The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Samuel Johnson49 quotes
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. — Samuel Johnson · 1778The triumph of hope over experience. — Samuel Johnson · 1784Claret is the liquor for the boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero (smiling) must drink brandy. — Samuel Johnson · 1779No, Sir; to act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite beings. Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive. — Samuel Johnson · 1776Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all. — Samuel Johnson · 1763Such is the delight of mental superiority , that none on, whom nature or study have conferred it, would purchase the gifts of fortune by its loss. — Samuel Johnson · 1751All 49 quotes →Izaak Walton7 quotes
We may say of angling, as Dr. Boteler said of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but doubtless God never did." — Izaak Walton · 1653No man can lose what he never had. — Izaak Walton · 1653I have laid aside business, and gone a-fishing. — Izaak Walton · 1653Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics, that it can never be fully learnt. — Izaak Walton · 1653I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning. — Izaak Walton · 1653I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing. — Izaak Walton · 1653All 7 quotes →Joseph Addison7 quotes
What pity is it,
That we can die but once, to serve our country! — Joseph Addison · 1713Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below. — Joseph Addison · 1694True Happiness is of a retired nature, and an enemy to pomp and noise: it arises, in the first place, from the enjoyment of one's self; and in the next, from the friendship and conversation of a few select companions. — Joseph Addison · 1711Our disputants put me in mind of the cuttle-fish, that when he is unable to extricate himself, blackens all the water about him till he becomes invisible. — Joseph Addison · 1712What Sculpture is to a Block of Marble, Education is to a Human Soul. — Joseph Addison · 1711Wide and undetermined Prospects are as pleasing to the Fancy, as the Speculations of Eternity or Infinitude are to the Understanding. — Joseph Addison · 1712All 7 quotes →Dinah Craik2 quotes
Oh, the comfort-the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person-having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. — Dinah Craik · 1859O, my son's my son till he gets him a wife,
But my daughter's my daughter all her life. — Dinah Craik · 1881