Samuel Johnson Quotes

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As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.

Samuel Johnson
As with my hat upon my head
I walk'd along the Strand,
I there did meet another man
With his hat in his hand.

Samuel Johnson
But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.

Samuel Johnson
In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

Samuel Johnson
It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art.

Samuel Johnson
So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past... that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

Samuel Johnson
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Samuel Johnson
Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal. And he may properly be charged with evil, who refused to learn how he might prevent it.

Samuel Johnson
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.

Samuel Johnson
Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life.

Samuel Johnson
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,
But leave to heaven the measure and the choice.

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

Samuel Johnson
I inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.

Samuel Johnson
Love is only one of many passions; and…it has no great influence upon the sum of life.

Samuel Johnson
It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."

Samuel Johnson
It must be agreed that in most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.

Samuel Johnson
Flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered.

Samuel Johnson
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

Samuel Johnson
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

Samuel Johnson
Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child's rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man's whore.

Samuel Johnson
Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.

Samuel Johnson
The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it.

Samuel Johnson
He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning.

Samuel Johnson
To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others

Samuel Johnson
Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

Samuel Johnson
The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Samuel Johnson
It is not the desire of new acquisitions, but the glory of conquests, that fires the soldier's breast; as indeed the town is seldom worth much, when it has suffered the devastations of a siege.

Samuel Johnson
A hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for twenty years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant, whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and with tea welcomes the morning.

Samuel Johnson
Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society.

Samuel Johnson
When female minds are embittered by age or solitude, their malignity is generally exerted in a rigorous and spiteful superintendence of domestic trifles.

Samuel Johnson