Samuel Johnson Happiness Quotations

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

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

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

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.

Such is the constitution of man that labor may be styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body

He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

We seldom learn the true want of what we have till it is discovered that we can have no more.

To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise...Let him take a course of chemistry, or a course of rope-dance, or a course of any thing to which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many things to which it can fly from itself.

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

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to farther progress.

The disturbers of happiness are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.

To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.

It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.

Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good from fear of remote evil; -from fear of its being abused.

If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.

Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.

Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.

He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.

What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.

Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings; let us be therefore cautious of how we strip her.

Reproof should not exhaust its power upon petty failings.

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.

That all who are happy are equally happy is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. A small drinking glass and a large one may be equally full, but the large one holds more than the small.

The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected; and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an individual weight of calumny will be super-added.

Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary.

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.

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

For who is pleased with himself.

The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind.

Good sense alone is a sedate and quiescent quality, which manages its possessions well, but does not increase them; it collects few materials for its own operations, and preserves safety, but never gains supremacy.

None are happy but by anticipation of change.

Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.

So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.

Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel; the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.

We seldom require more to the happiness of the present hour than to surpass him that stands next before us.