Johnson Samuel Quotes & Sayings

No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with promoting the corruption of others. He whose merit has enlarged his influence would surely wish to exert it for the benefit of mankind. Yet such will be the effect of his reputation, while he suffers himself to indulge in any favourite fault, that they who have no hope to reach his excellence will catch at his failings, and his virtues will be cited to justify the copiers of his vices. — Samuel Johnson

The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it at another; and each labors first to impose upon himself and then to propagate the imposture. — Samuel Johnson

What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed. — Samuel Johnson

Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotch man happy! — Samuel Johnson

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

In bed we laugh, in bed we cry, and born in bed, in bed we die; the near approach a bed may show of human bliss to human woe. — Samuel Johnson

A newswriter is a man without virtue, who lies at home for his own profit. — Samuel Johnson

There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself. — Samuel Johnson

In misery's darkest cavern known, His useful care was ever nigh Where hopeless anguish pour'd his groan, And lonely want retir'd to die. — Samuel Johnson

Power is gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent. — Samuel Johnson

I am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed. — Samuel Johnson

There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree to be weary alike of pleasures and of cares; that the powerful and the weak, the celebrated and obscure, join in one common wish, and implore from nature's hand the nectar of oblivion. — Samuel Johnson

The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity. — Samuel Johnson

Grief is a species of idleness. — Samuel Johnson

Life of Ages, richly poured,
Love of God unspent and free,
Flowing in the Prophet's word
And the People's liberty!
Never was to chosen race
That unstinted tide confined;
Thine is every time and place,
Fountain sweet of heart and mind! — Samuel Johnson

For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill. — Samuel Johnson

Golf is a game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood. — Samuel Johnson

Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty. — Samuel Johnson

The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson) — Tobias Smollett

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

Consider what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon that all the property in the world depends. We hang a thief for stealing a sheep; but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep and farm and all from the right owner. — Samuel Johnson

Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirrour of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species. — Samuel Johnson

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. — Samuel Johnson

Ben Franklin and Samuel Johnson, he credits their wisdom for his success. "They were both utterly brilliant men. And powerful communicators. Both have helped me all the way through life. Their lessons are easy to assimilate." — Charlie Munger

Everybody knows worse of himself than he knows of other men. — Samuel Johnson

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

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

Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end — Samuel Johnson

It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness. — Samuel Johnson

Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others. — Samuel Johnson

In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant. — Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. — Samuel Johnson

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety. — Samuel Johnson

It is, however, not necessary, that a man should forbear to write, till he has discovered some truth unknown before; he may be sufficiently useful, by only diversifying the surface of knowledge, and luring the mind by a new appearance to a second view of those beauties which it had passed over inattentively before. — Samuel Johnson

To preserve health is a moral and religious duty, for health is the basis of all social virtues. We can no longer be useful when not well. — Samuel Johnson

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

Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature. — Samuel Johnson

Our minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them. — Samuel Johnson

Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him. — Samuel Johnson

The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other. — Samuel Johnson

Of a thousand shavers, two do not shave so much alike as not to be distinguished. — Samuel Johnson

Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well. — Samuel Johnson

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity; nor is that curiosity ever more agreeably or usefully employed, than in examining the laws and customs of foreign nations. — Samuel Johnson

I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow. — Samuel Johnson

To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we had to read in college English courses - to read them now is to have one of the infinite pleasures in life. — David McCullough

APOPHYGE (APO'PHYGE) n.s.[ flight, or escape.]Is, in architecture, that part of a column, where it begins to spring out of its base; and was originally no more than the ring or ferrel, which anciently bound the extremities of wooden pillars, to keep them from splitting, and were afterward imitated in stone work. We sometimes call it the spring of the column.Chambers. — Samuel Johnson

Judgment is forced upon us by experience — Samuel Johnson

It was his peculiar happiness that he scarcely ever found a stranger whom he did not leave a friend; but it must likewise be added, that he had not often a friend long without obliging him to become a stranger. — Samuel Johnson

Is there such depravity in man as that he should injure another without benefit to himself? — Samuel Johnson

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

All industry must be excited by hope. — Samuel Johnson

If an author be supposed to involve his thoughts in voluntary obscurity, and to obstruct, by unnecessary difficulties, a mind eager in the pursuit of truth; if he writes not to make others learned, but to boast the learning which he possesses himself, and wishes to be admired rather than understood, he counteracts the first end of writing, and justly suffers the utmost severity of censure, or the more afflicting severity of neglect. — Samuel Johnson

It is thus that mutual cowardice keeps us in peace. Were one half of mankind brave and one cowards, the brave would be always beating the cowards. Were all brave, they would lead a very uneasy life; all would be continually fighting; but being all cowards, we go on very well. — Samuel Johnson

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy. — Samuel Johnson

Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes. — Samuel Johnson

Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage. — William Samuel Johnson

When first the college rolls receive his name,
The young enthusiast quilts his ease for fame;
Through all his veins the fever of renown
Burns from the strong contagion of the gown — Samuel Johnson

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money. — Samuel Johnson

No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with his merit, panting with expectation, and hushed with attention, easily terrifies himself with the dread of disappointing them, and strains his imagination in pursuit of something that may vindicate the veracity of fame, and show that his reputation was not gained by chance. — Samuel Johnson

The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was yet able to despise. — Samuel Johnson

A man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It is a miserable thing when the conversation can only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that. — Samuel Johnson

Hunger is never delicate. — Samuel Johnson

It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together. — Samuel Johnson

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

Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it. — Samuel Johnson

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

Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards. — Samuel Johnson

He that floats lazily down the stream, in pursuit of something borne along by the same current, will find himself indeed moved forward; but unless he lays his hand to the oar, and increases his speed by his own labour, must be always at the same distance from that which he is following. — Samuel Johnson

Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted. — Samuel Johnson

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

PU'RIST: one superstitiously nice in the use of words. — Samuel Johnson

Self-love is a busy prompter. — Samuel Johnson

Week of taverns soon qualified him for another year of night-cellars. Such was the life of Savage, of Boyse, and of a crowd of others. Sometimes blazing in gold-laced hats and waistcoats; sometimes lying in bed because their coats had gone to pieces, or wearing paper cravats because their linen was in pawn; sometimes drinking Champagne and Tokay with Betty Careless; sometimes standing at the window of an eating-house in Porridge island, to snuff up the scent of what they could not afford to taste; they knew luxury; they knew beggary; but they never knew comfort. These men were irreclaimable. They looked on a regular and frugal life with the same aversion which an old gipsy or a Mohawk hunter feels for a stationary abode, and for the restraints and securities of civilised communities. They were as untameable, as much wedded to their desolate freedom, as the wild ass. — Samuel Johnson

He that travels in theory has no inconveniences. — Samuel Johnson

Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat. — Samuel Johnson

Want of tenderness is want of parts, and is no less a proof of stupidity than depravity. — Samuel Johnson

There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence. — Samuel Johnson

One of the aged greatest miseries is that they cannot easily find a companion able to share the memories of the past. — Samuel Johnson

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled. — Samuel Johnson

Friendship, peculiar boon of Heaven, The noble mind's delight and pride, To men and angels only given, To all the lower world denied. — Samuel Johnson

Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty. — Samuel Johnson

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything. — Samuel Johnson

The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched. — Samuel Johnson

AGHAST (AGHA'ST) adj.[either the participle of agaze,(see AGAZE) and then to be written agazed, or agast,or from a and gast, a ghost, which the present orthography favours; perhaps they were originally different words.]Struck with horrour, as — Samuel Johnson

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. — Samuel Johnson

Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life. — Samuel Johnson

I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the next place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then, sir, young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect. — Samuel Johnson

What is easy is seldom excellent. — Samuel Johnson

Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness. — Samuel Johnson

Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury; for, as I said before; it can reach but a very few. — Samuel Johnson

The heroes of literary history have been no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved. — Samuel Johnson

These are the men who, without virtue, labour, or hazard, are growing rich, as their country is impoverished; they rejoice, when obstinacy or ambition adds another year to slaughter and devastation; and laugh, from their desks, at bravery and science, while they are adding figure to figure, and cipher to cipher, hoping for a new contract from a new armament, and computing the profits of a siege or tempest. — Samuel Johnson

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. — Samuel Johnson

If we consider the manner in which those who assume the office of directing the conduct of others execute their undertaking, it will not be very wonderful that their labours, however zealous or affectionate, are frequently useless. For what is the advice that is commonly given? A few general maxims, enforced with vehemence, and inculcated with importunity, but failing for want of particular reference and immediate application. — Samuel Johnson

Age is rarely despised but when it is, contemptible. — Samuel Johnson

The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment. It is commonly observed, that among soldiers and seamen, though there is much kindness, there is little grief; they see their friend fall without any of that lamentation which is indulged in security and idleness, because they have no leisure to spare from the care of themselves; and whoever shall keep his thoughts equally busy will find himself equally unaffected with irretrievable losses. — Samuel Johnson

Remember that nothing will supply the want of prudence, and that negligence and irregularity long continued will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible. — Samuel Johnson

It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art. — Samuel Johnson

He who attempts to do all will waste his life in doing little. — Samuel Johnson

Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it. — Samuel Johnson