Samuel Johnson Quotes

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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
The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.

Samuel Johnson
Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.

Samuel Johnson
Such is the constitution of man that labour may be styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.

Samuel Johnson
I am afraid he has not been in the inside of a church for many years; but he never passes a church without pulling off his hat. This shows that he has good principles.
Of Dr John Campbell

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

Samuel Johnson
We could not have had a better dinner had there been a Synod of Cooks.

Samuel Johnson
Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.

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

Samuel Johnson
They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than the restlessness of a vacant mind, that they are not so much led by hope as driven by disgust, and wish rather to leave the country than to see the town.

Samuel Johnson
It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful.

Samuel Johnson
Sir, sorrow is inherent in humanity. As you cannot judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four, so, when comparing a worse present state with a better which is past, you cannot but feel sorrow. It is not cured by reason, but by the incursion of present objects, which bear out the past.

Samuel Johnson
It is much easier not to write like a man than to write like a woman.

Samuel Johnson
As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor.

Samuel Johnson