Samuel Johnson Quotes

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We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure.

Samuel Johnson
It is always observable that silence propagates itself, and that the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find any thing to say.

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

Samuel Johnson
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

Samuel Johnson
How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives

Samuel Johnson
The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another; to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country.

Samuel Johnson
Friendship is seldom lasting but between equals, or where the superiority on one side is reduced by some equivalent advantage on the other.

Samuel Johnson
Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.

Samuel Johnson
His [David Garrick's] death has eclipsed the gaiety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.

Samuel Johnson
Sir, I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers;—one, that I have lost all the names,—the other, that I have spent all the 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
Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.

Samuel Johnson
[Of Lord Chesterfield] This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!

Samuel Johnson
I [Boswell] happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place.
JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here."

Samuel Johnson
Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation.

Samuel Johnson
The first years of man must make provision for the last.

Samuel Johnson
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

Samuel Johnson
I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

Samuel Johnson
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.

Samuel Johnson
Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.

Samuel Johnson
A lady once asked him how he came to define 'pastern', the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as might be expected, he at once answered, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."

Samuel Johnson
Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.

Samuel Johnson
As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.

Samuel Johnson
"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

Samuel Johnson
If a man does not make new acquaintance 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
Then with no throbs of fiery pain,
No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the vital chain,
And freed his soul the nearest way.

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

Samuel Johnson
A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,
Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,
And touched nothing that he did not adorn.

Samuel Johnson
ESSAY — A loose sally of the mind; an irregular indigested piece; not a regular and orderly composition.

Samuel Johnson
Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.

Samuel Johnson