Well, I try not to think about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does.
Elliott Smith

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Samuel Johnson

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
Samuel Johnson

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.
Samuel Johnson

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
Samuel Johnson

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
Samuel Johnson

And the Marshall Plan, to us, meant a general who had turned into a secretary of state, and that the secretary of state saw the necessity of the reconstruction of these European countries that had suffered so heavily.
Giovanni Agnelli

That the state of knowledge in any country will exert a directive influence on the general system of instruction adopted in it, is a principle too obvious to require investigation.
Charles Babbage

One of the best things to come out of the home computer revolution could be the general and widespread understanding of how severely limited logic really is.
Frank Herbert

As to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other.
Giacomo Casanova

There is only one thing which can master the perplexed stuff of epic material into unity; and that is, an ability to see in particular human experience some significant symbolism of man's general destiny.
Lascelles Abercrombie

The balance of private good and general welfare is at the bottom of civilized morals; but the morals of the Heroic Age are founded on individuality, and on nothing else.
Lascelles Abercrombie

By the general process of epic poetry, I mean the way this form of art has constantly responded to the profound needs of the society in which it was made.
Lascelles Abercrombie

It's different in Scotland. People who come to readings are more interested in literature as such, but the readership in general is really quite diverse. It's a cliche, but it's said that people who read my books don't read any other books, and you do get that element.
Irvine Welsh

General principles... are to the facts as the root and sap of a tree are to its leaves.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge

No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it.
Fernando Pessoa

It is easier to know men in general, than men in particular.
Francois de La Rochefoucauld

We have to raise the consciousness; the only way poets can change the world is to raise the consciousness of the general populace.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti

My father has a general rule. He says if I haven't done it in real life I shouldn't do it on-screen.
Natalie Portman

The cultural contrast I saw between religions... Catholics have a lot of mediators, going through saints and Mary or whatever. Protestants in general say things to God directly.
Robert Duvall