Samuel Johnson Quotes

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Reflect that life, like every other blessing,
Derives its value from its use alone.

Samuel Johnson
Sleep is a state in which a great part of every life is passed. No animal has yet been discovered, whose existence is not varied with intervals of insensibility; and some late philosophers have extended the empire of sleep over the vegetable world.

Samuel Johnson
To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

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

Samuel Johnson
OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

Samuel Johnson
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

Samuel Johnson
If what happens does not make us richer, we must welcome it if it makes us wiser.

Samuel Johnson
Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately to the relief of some pressing uneasiness, or the attainment of some near advantage.

Samuel Johnson
There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in a time of general venality, to lead a life of virtue and reason in the midst of sensualists, is a proof of a mind intent on nobler things than the praise or blame of men, of a soul fixed in the contemplation of the highest good, and superiour to the tyranny of custom and example.

Samuel Johnson
But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Samuel Johnson
Sir, I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

Samuel Johnson
PATRON, n. One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.

Samuel Johnson
I directed them to bring a bundle [of hay] into the room, and slept upon it in my riding coat. Mr Boswell, being more delicate, laid himself sheets with hay over and under him, and lay in linen like a gentleman.

Samuel Johnson
From Thee, great God: we spring, to Thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original, and end.

Samuel Johnson
Johnson had said that he could repeat a complete chapter of 'The Natural History of Iceland', from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus:—'chap. lxxii. Concerning snakes. There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.'

Samuel Johnson
He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Samuel Johnson
Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive.

Samuel Johnson
Here closed in death th' attentive eyes
That saw the manners in the face.

Samuel Johnson
It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Samuel Johnson
The endearing elegance of female friendship.

Samuel Johnson
It is our first duty to serve society, and, after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls. A youthful passion for abstracted devotion should not be encouraged.

Samuel Johnson
Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.

Samuel Johnson
Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expence. Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to errour. Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. If I could have allowed myself to gratify my vanity at the expence of truth, what fame might I have acquired.

Samuel Johnson
As the Spanish proverb says, "He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him." So it is in traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

Samuel Johnson
The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside

Samuel Johnson
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Samuel Johnson
Nothing is difficult, when gain and honour unite their influence.

Samuel Johnson
How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.

Samuel Johnson
Young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect.

Samuel Johnson
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Samuel Johnson