Quotation added by staff

Why not add this quote to your bookmarks?

  ...of those whom the rich and noble admit to familiarity.
I am a gentleman of a fortune by no means exuberant, but more than equal to the wants of my family, and for some years equal to our desires. My wife, who had never been accustomed to splendour, joined her endeavours to mine in the superintendence of our economy; we lived in decent plenty, and were not excluded from moderate pleasures.
But slight causes produce great effects. All my happiness has been destroyed by change of place: Virtue is too often merely local.   in some situations the air diseases the body, and in others poisons the mind. Being obliged to remove my habitation, I was led by my evil genius to a convenient house in a street where many of the nobility reside. We had scarcely ranged our furniture, and aired our rooms, when my wife began to grow discontented, and to wonder what the neighbours would think, when they saw so few chairs and chariots at her door.
Her acquaintance, who came to see her from the quarter that we had...   Johnson, Samuel

Excerpt from The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 04 The Adventurer; The Idler · This quote is about virtue · Search on Google Books to find all references and sources for this quotation.

• Biography
• Fans
• This quote in blogs