Samuel Johnson Quotations | Page 4

Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.

Around his tomb let Art and Genius weep / But hear his death, ye blockheads! hear and sleep.

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

Claret is the liquor for boys; port, for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy

I have observed, that in comedy, the best actor plays the part of the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the hero, or fine gentleman. So, in this farce of life, wise men pass their time in mirth, whilst fools only are serious.

In the most general applause discordant voices will always be heard

Honesty is not greater where elegance is less.

He that finds his knowledge narrow, and his arguments weak, and by consequence his suffrage not much regarded, is sometimes in hope of gaining that attention by his clamours which he cannot otherwise obtain, and is pleased with remembering that at la

He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected.

He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in "Hierocles", who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness, of captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable.

For my part, Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious

The two great movers of the human mind are the desire for good, and the fear of evil

The world is not yet exhaused; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

It was not for me to bandy civilities with my Sovereign

Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.

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 one book.

The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live.

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

The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a years.

The folly of allowing ourselves to delay what we know cannot be finally escaped is one of the general weaknesses which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrance of reason, prevail to a greater or less degree in every mind

Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.

The lustre of diamonds is invigorated by the interposition of darker bodies; the lights of a picture are created by the shades; the highest pleasure which nature has indulged to sensitive perception is that of rest after fatigue

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

The chains of habit are generally too week to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken.

A Judge may be a farmer; but he is not to geld his own pigs. A Judge may play a little at cards for his own amusement; but he is not to play at marbles, or chuck farthing in the Piazza.

That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona

That man (Lord Lyttelton) sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him

This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,- Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd

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

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

It may likewise contribute to soften that resentment which pride naturally raises against opposition, if we consider, that he who differs from us, does not always contradict us; he has one view of an object, and we have another; each describes what h

I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.

I beg to submit that it is the first.

I cannot forbear to wish, that this commotion (in the colonies) may end without bloodshed, and that the rebels may be subdued by terror rather than by violence; and, therefore, recommend such a force as may take away, not only the power, but the hope

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

A mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good

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.

Marriage is the strictest tie of perpetual friendship, and there can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity; and he must expect to be wretched, who pays to beauty, riches, or politeness that regard which only virtue and piety can claim.

The future is purchased by the present.

Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.

In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.

From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.

If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not quit it to go to the beginning. He may perhaps not feel again the inclination.

A man's mind grows narrow in a narrow place.

Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.

Language is the dress of thought.

Your aspirations are your possibilities.

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.

Quack: A boastful pretender to arts which he does not understand. A vain boastful pretender to physick; An artful, tricking practitioner in physick.

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.

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Slander is the revenge of a coward, and dissimulation of his defense.

Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness. Those who profit by the cheat distrust the deceiver; and the act by which kindness was sought puts an end to confidence.

No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.

Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?

Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.

Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances; it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.

About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.

People in distress never think that you feel enough.

We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.

Read the book you do honestly feel a wish and curiosity to read.

We may take Fancy for a companion, but must follow Reason as our guide.

Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.

Nothing is little to him that feels it with great sensibility.

Life is surely given us for higher purposes than to gather what our ancestors have wisely thrown away, and to learn what is of no value but because it has been forgotten.

A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not love Scotland better than truth.

All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.

No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.

Whoever rises above those who once pleased themselves with equality, will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence.

Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind.

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.

You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe.

There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt.

Trust as little as you can to report, and examine all you can by your own senses.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.

By writing, you learn to write.

While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.

Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without any measure but interest, and to lose shame without substituting virtue.

Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.

Piety practiced in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

No man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excites our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten.

An exotic and irrational entertainment.

...a man estimable for his learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliance of wit; a wit who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal.

His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.

Was ever poet so trusted before?

The roads of science are narrow, so that they who travel them, must wither follow or meet one another...