Samuel Johnson Quotes

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"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
There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.

Samuel Johnson
No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.

Samuel Johnson
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.

Samuel Johnson
A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.

Samuel Johnson
It was not for me to bandy civilities with my Sovereign.

Samuel Johnson
Corneille is to Shakespeare…as a clipped hedge is to a forest.

Samuel Johnson
Worth seeing? yes; but not worth going to see.

Samuel Johnson
What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention; so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.

Samuel Johnson
Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.

Samuel Johnson
Of all the griefs that harrass the distressed,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the gen'rous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

Samuel Johnson
I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would be less muddy, and you will leave off tormenting your neighbors about paper and packthread, while we all live together in a world that is bursting with sin and sorrow.

Samuel Johnson
As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Samuel Johnson
A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over experience.

Samuel Johnson
Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.

Samuel Johnson
Of Pembroke College:
Sir, we are a nest of singing birds.

Samuel Johnson
Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.

Samuel Johnson
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.

Samuel Johnson
The greater, far the greater number of those who rave and rail, and inquire and accuse, neither suspect nor fear, nor care for the publick; but hope to force their way to riches, by virulence and invective, and are vehement and clamorous, only that they may be sooner hired to be silent.

Samuel Johnson