Samuel Johnson - Find Quotes

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A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations to envy or malevolence, and has always a certain prospect of discovering new reasons for adoring the sovereign author of the universe.

Samuel Johnson
I wish you would add an index rerum, that when the reader recollects any incident he may easily find it.

Samuel Johnson
Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.

Samuel Johnson
The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by the multitude of our assailants.

Samuel Johnson
We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves.

Samuel Johnson
Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself

Samuel Johnson
Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.

Samuel Johnson
Boswell: I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it…
Johnson: That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.

Samuel Johnson
A transition from an author's book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.

Samuel Johnson
I dogmatise and am contradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find delight.
On his conversation in taverns

Samuel Johnson
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.

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

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
To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference was made without, a comparison; but it has never been my fortune to find, either in ancient or modern writers, any honourable mention of those, who have, with equal blindness, hated their country.

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
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
The imitator treads a beaten walk, and with all his diligence can only find a few flowers or branches untouched by his predecessor, the refuse of contempt, or the omissions of negligence.

Samuel Johnson
To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton.

Samuel Johnson
It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them.... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.

Samuel Johnson
Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Samuel Johnson
Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a grey one.

Samuel Johnson
From all our observations we may collect with certainty, that misery is the lot of man, but cannot discover in what particular condition it will find most alleviations.

Samuel Johnson
Allow them [children] to be happy their own way, for what better way will they ever find?

Samuel Johnson
Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion.

Samuel Johnson
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them.

Samuel Johnson
Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

Samuel Johnson
It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.

Samuel Johnson
He that thinks with more extent than another will want words of larger meaning; he that thinks with more subtilty will seek for terms of more nice discrimination; and where is the wonder, since words are but the images of things, that he who never knew the original should not know the copies?
Yet vanity inclines us to find faults any where rather than in ourselves. He that reads and grows no wiser, seldom suspects his own deficiency; but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood?

Samuel Johnson
How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

Samuel Johnson
With these [Love, Patience, Faith] celestial Wisdom calms the mind, And makes the happiness she does not find.

Samuel Johnson