Johnsonian Quotes & Sayings

The English language is like London: proudly barbaric yet deeply civilised, too, common yet royal, vulgar yet processional, sacred yet profane. Each sentence we produce, whether we know it or not, is a mongrel mouthful of Chaucerian, Shakespearean, Miltonic, Johnsonian, Dickensian and American. Military, naval, legal, corporate, criminal, jazz, rap and ghetto discourses are mingled at every turn. The French language, like Paris, has attempted, through its Academy, to retain its purity, to fight the advancing tides of Franglais and international prefabrication. English, by comparison, is a shameless whore. — Stephen Fry

I'm telling you lady I'm only human, not looking for impossibility. Just a genuine woman with sincerity. — Buju Banton

We never find what we set out hearts on. We ought to be glad of that. — George MacKay

I know of no better life purpose than to perish in attempting the great and the impossible. — Friedrich Nietzsche

Gorbachev's stance contrasts admirably with the policy of the sainted Abraham Lincoln, who used massive force and mass murder to force the seceding Southern states to remain in the Union. — Murray Rothbard

Losing something is difficult while gaining something is easier. So try to gain beauty and make your life prettier. — Debasish Mridha

And the stains would never wash out. That's what Lukas was saying. She would always have hurt her father. Was that the way to phrase it? Always have had. It was immortal tense. A new rule of grammar. — Hugh Howey

My mind was, as it were, strongly impregnated with the Johnsonian ether. — James Boswell

The intellectual attainments of a man who thinks for himself resemble a fine painting, where the light and shade are correct, the tone sustained, the colour perfectly harmonised; it is true to life. On the other hand, the intellectual attainments of the mere man of learning are like a large palette, full of all sorts of colours, which at most are systematically arranged, but devoid of harmony, connection and meaning. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Diplomacy never stops, and, with or without an election, it never stops. — Colin Powell

Is it possible that God had something else in mind? — Dannah Gresh