Quotes by
Samuel Johnson |
1709-1784 , English writer
Often referred to as Dr. Johnson, he was an English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer, regarded as one of the greatest figures of 18th-century life and letters.He is also the subject of perhaps the most famous biography in English literature, namely The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell.
| 79 quotes | 4,012 visits |
Quotations
| • | Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. 20 |
| • | 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. 10 |
| • | The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. 8 |
| • | Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more. 8 |
| • | A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek. 7 |
| • | Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea. 7 |
| • | Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so. 7 |
| • | Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel. 7 |
| • | Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice. 7 |
| • | A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good. 6 |
| • | He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt. 6 |
| • | Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. 5 |
| • | Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything. 5 |
| • | We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us. 5 |
| • | Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise. 5 |
| • | I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am. 5 |
| • | Being in a ship is like being in jail, with the chance of being drowned. 4 |
| • | A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. 4 |
| • | To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly. 4 |
| • | The true art of memory is the art of attention. 4 |
| • | A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman. 4 |
| • | Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God. 4 |
| • | Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess. 4 |
| • | The chains of habit are generally too week to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken. 4 |
| • | Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed. 3 |
| • | The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before. 3 |
| • | There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed. 3 |
| • | Adversity is the state in which man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then. 3 |
| • | I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire. 3 |
| • | It is better to live rich than to die rich. 3 |
| • | You can never be wise unless you love reading. 3 |
| • | The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. 3 |
| • | This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts. 3 |
| • | What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. 3 |
| • | There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten. 3 |
| • | Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment. 3 |
| • | What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. 3 |
| • | Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. 3 |
| • | 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. 3 |
| • | Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can. 2 |
| • | Worth seeing? yes; but not worth going to see. 2 |
| • | All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it. 2 |
| • | All argument is against it; but all belief is for it. (on the subject of ghosts) 2 |
| • | To a poet nothing can be useless. 2 |
| • | Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. 2 |
| • | A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other. 2 |
| • | Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. 2 |
| • | Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. 2 |
| • | He who praises everybody, praises nobody. 2 |
| • | Men do not suspect faults which they do not commit. 2 |
| • | Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author. 2 |
| • | The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it. 2 |
| • | Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument. 2 |
| • | If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle. 2 |
| • | I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read. 2 |
| • | When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life. 2 |
| • | Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present. 2 |
| • | Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last. 2 |
| • | A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it. 2 |
| • | If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written. 2 |
| • | What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect. 2 |
| • | Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most. 2 |
| • | Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance. 2 |
| • | Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with. 2 |
| • | I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance. 2 |
| • | He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. 2 |
| • | Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man. 2 |
| • | Language is the pedigree of nations. 2 |
| • | Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price. 2 |
| • | The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it. 2 |
| • | Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful. 2 |
| • | Language is the dress of thought. 2 |
| • | To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity. 2 |
| • | Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling. 2 |
| • | It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination. 2 |
| • | No man was ever great by imitation. 2 |
| • | Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble. 2 |
| • | I am willing to love all mankind, except an American. 2 |
| • | There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern. 2 |
