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Samuel Johnson

194 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

  1. 1.

    Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

    Samuel Johnson

  2. 2.

    He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

    Samuel Johnson

  3. 3.

    It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

    Samuel Johnson

  4. 4.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  5. 5.

    Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

    Samuel Johnson

  6. 6.

    Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.

    Samuel Johnson

  7. 7.

    Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

    Samuel Johnson

  8. 8.

    It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

    Samuel Johnson

  9. 9.

    When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

    Samuel Johnson

  10. 10.

    It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

    Samuel Johnson

  11. 11.

    Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

    Samuel Johnson

  12. 12.

    What is easy is seldom excellent.

    Samuel Johnson

  13. 13.

    Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

    Samuel Johnson

  14. 14.

    He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

    Samuel Johnson

  15. 15.

    I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

    Samuel Johnson

  16. 16.

    If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

    Samuel Johnson

  17. 17.

    Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

    Samuel Johnson

  18. 18.

    One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

    Samuel Johnson

  19. 19.

    Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

    Samuel Johnson

  20. 20.

    Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

    Samuel Johnson

  21. 21.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  22. 22.

    There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

    Samuel Johnson

  23. 23.

    Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

    Samuel Johnson

  24. 24.

    All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

    Samuel Johnson

  25. 25.

    The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

    Samuel Johnson

  26. 26.

    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.

    Samuel Johnson

  27. 27.

    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.

    Samuel Johnson

  28. 28.

    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

  29. 29.

    He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

    Samuel Johnson

  30. 30.

    Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

    Samuel Johnson

  31. 31.

    Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

    Samuel Johnson

  32. 32.

    Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

    Samuel Johnson

  33. 33.

    The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.

    Samuel Johnson

  34. 34.

    The future is purchased by the present.

    Samuel Johnson

  35. 35.

    Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

    Samuel Johnson

  36. 36.

    Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

    Samuel Johnson

  37. 37.

    To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

    Samuel Johnson

  38. 38.

    Love is only one of many passions.

    Samuel Johnson

  39. 39.

    No man was ever great by imitation.

    Samuel Johnson

  40. 40.

    When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

    Samuel Johnson

  41. 41.

    The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

    Samuel Johnson

  42. 42.

    Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

    Samuel Johnson

  43. 43.

    The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

    Samuel Johnson

  44. 44.

    A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

    Samuel Johnson

  45. 45.

    A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

    Samuel Johnson

  46. 46.

    He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

    Samuel Johnson

  47. 47.

    There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

    Samuel Johnson

  48. 48.

    Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.

    Samuel Johnson

  49. 49.

    In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

    Samuel Johnson

  50. 50.

    A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

    Samuel Johnson

  51. 51.

    A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

    Samuel Johnson

  52. 52.

    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.

    Samuel Johnson

  53. 53.

    We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

    Samuel Johnson

  54. 54.

    My dear friend, clear your mind of can’t.

    Samuel Johnson

  55. 55.

    Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

    Samuel Johnson

  56. 56.

    You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

    Samuel Johnson

  57. 57.

    The true art of memory is the art of attention.

    Samuel Johnson

  58. 58.

    You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

    Samuel Johnson

  59. 59.

    The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

    Samuel Johnson

  60. 60.

    I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

    Samuel Johnson

  61. 61.

    It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

    Samuel Johnson

  62. 62.

    Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

    Samuel Johnson

  63. 63.

    Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

    Samuel Johnson

  64. 64.

    If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

    Samuel Johnson

  65. 65.

    Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

    Samuel Johnson

  66. 66.

    Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

    Samuel Johnson

  67. 67.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  68. 68.

    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

  69. 69.

    Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

    Samuel Johnson

  70. 70.

    Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

    Samuel Johnson

  71. 71.

    The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

    Samuel Johnson

  72. 72.

    Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

    Samuel Johnson

  73. 73.

    That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

    Samuel Johnson

  74. 74.

    The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

    Samuel Johnson

  75. 75.

    Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

    Samuel Johnson

  76. 76.

    Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

    Samuel Johnson

  77. 77.

    There are charms made only for distant admiration.

    Samuel Johnson

  78. 78.

    Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

    Samuel Johnson

  79. 79.

    To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

    Samuel Johnson

  80. 80.

    Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

    Samuel Johnson

  81. 81.

    Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.

    Samuel Johnson

  82. 82.

    You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.

    Samuel Johnson

  83. 83.

    Exercise is labor without weariness.

    Samuel Johnson

  84. 84.

    Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

    Samuel Johnson

  85. 85.

    Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

    Samuel Johnson

  86. 86.

    Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

    Samuel Johnson

  87. 87.

    He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.

    Samuel Johnson

  88. 88.

    When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

    Samuel Johnson

  89. 89.

    Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

    Samuel Johnson

  90. 90.

    The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

    Samuel Johnson

  91. 91.

    Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

    Samuel Johnson

  92. 92.

    He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

    Samuel Johnson

  93. 93.

    There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

    Samuel Johnson

  94. 94.

    Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

    Samuel Johnson

  95. 95.

    Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

    Samuel Johnson

  96. 96.

    If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

    Samuel Johnson

  97. 97.

    Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

    Samuel Johnson

  98. 98.

    By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

    Samuel Johnson

  99. 99.

    To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

    Samuel Johnson

  100. 100.

    Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

    Samuel Johnson

  101. 101.

    The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

    Samuel Johnson

  102. 102.

    It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

    Samuel Johnson

  103. 103.

    A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

    Samuel Johnson

  104. 104.

    So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

    Samuel Johnson

  105. 105.

    It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

    Samuel Johnson

  106. 106.

    He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

    Samuel Johnson

  107. 107.

    It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

    Samuel Johnson

  108. 108.

    Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and… the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

    Samuel Johnson

  109. 109.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  110. 110.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  111. 111.

    Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.

    Samuel Johnson

  112. 112.

    To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

    Samuel Johnson

  113. 113.

    There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.

    Samuel Johnson

  114. 114.

    We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

    Samuel Johnson

  115. 115.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  116. 116.

    Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

    Samuel Johnson

  117. 117.

    What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

    Samuel Johnson

  118. 118.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  119. 119.

    So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

    Samuel Johnson

  120. 120.

    Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

    Samuel Johnson

  121. 121.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  122. 122.

    When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

    Samuel Johnson

  123. 123.

    Language is the dress of thought.

    Samuel Johnson

  124. 124.

    Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

    Samuel Johnson

  125. 125.

    You hesitate to stab me with a word, and know not – silence is the sharper sword.

    Samuel Johnson

  126. 126.

    What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.

    Samuel Johnson

  127. 127.

    It is better to live rich than to die rich.

    Samuel Johnson

  128. 128.

    At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

    Samuel Johnson

  129. 129.

    Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

    Samuel Johnson

  130. 130.

    Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

    Samuel Johnson

  131. 131.

    No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

    Samuel Johnson

  132. 132.

    Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

    Samuel Johnson

  133. 133.

    A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

    Samuel Johnson

  134. 134.

    Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

    Samuel Johnson

  135. 135.

    The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

    Samuel Johnson

  136. 136.

    Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

    Samuel Johnson

  137. 137.

    There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

    Samuel Johnson

  138. 138.

    Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

    Samuel Johnson

  139. 139.

    Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

    Samuel Johnson

  140. 140.

    Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

    Samuel Johnson

  141. 141.

    Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

    Samuel Johnson

  142. 142.

    Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

    Samuel Johnson

  143. 143.

    No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

    Samuel Johnson

  144. 144.

    By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

    Samuel Johnson

  145. 145.

    A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

    Samuel Johnson

  146. 146.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  147. 147.

    To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

    Samuel Johnson

  148. 148.

    I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

    Samuel Johnson

  149. 149.

    Words are but the signs of ideas.

    Samuel Johnson

  150. 150.

    Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

    Samuel Johnson

  151. 151.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  152. 152.

    Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

    Samuel Johnson

  153. 153.

    Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

    Samuel Johnson

  154. 154.

    When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

    Samuel Johnson

  155. 155.

    Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

    Samuel Johnson

  156. 156.

    I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him.

    Samuel Johnson

  157. 157.

    Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

    Samuel Johnson

  158. 158.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  159. 159.

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

    Samuel Johnson

  160. 160.

    When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

    Samuel Johnson

  161. 161.

    The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

    Samuel Johnson

  162. 162.

    I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

    Samuel Johnson

  163. 163.

    No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

    Samuel Johnson

  164. 164.

    Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

    Samuel Johnson

  165. 165.

    Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

    Samuel Johnson

  166. 166.

    A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

    Samuel Johnson

  167. 167.

    Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

    Samuel Johnson

  168. 168.

    The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

    Samuel Johnson

  169. 169.

    I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

    Samuel Johnson

  170. 170.

    Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

    Samuel Johnson

  171. 171.

    Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

    Samuel Johnson

  172. 172.

    Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

    Samuel Johnson

  173. 173.

    It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

    Samuel Johnson

  174. 174.

    Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

    Samuel Johnson

  175. 175.

    A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

    Samuel Johnson

  176. 176.

    Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.

    Samuel Johnson

  177. 177.

    You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

    Samuel Johnson

  178. 178.

    A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

    Samuel Johnson

  179. 179.

    The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

    Samuel Johnson

  180. 180.

    From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

    Samuel Johnson

  181. 181.

    I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

    Samuel Johnson

  182. 182.

    Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

    Samuel Johnson

  183. 183.

    The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

    Samuel Johnson

  184. 184.

    All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

    Samuel Johnson

  185. 185.

    The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

    Samuel Johnson

  186. 186.

    Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

    Samuel Johnson

  187. 187.

    Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

    Samuel Johnson

  188. 188.

    No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

    Samuel Johnson

  189. 189.

    It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

    Samuel Johnson

  190. 190.

    The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

    Samuel Johnson

  191. 191.

    No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

    Samuel Johnson

  192. 192.

    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.

    Samuel Johnson

  193. 193.

    There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

    Samuel Johnson

  194. 194.

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

    Samuel Johnson