Samuel Johnson Quotes

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.
Samuel Johnson

A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.
Samuel Johnson

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
Samuel Johnson

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.
Samuel Johnson

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Samuel Johnson

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Samuel Johnson

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
Samuel Johnson

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
Samuel Johnson

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
Samuel Johnson

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
Samuel Johnson

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.
Samuel Johnson

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
Samuel Johnson

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.
Samuel Johnson

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
Samuel Johnson

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
Samuel Johnson

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
Samuel Johnson

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
Samuel Johnson

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
Samuel Johnson

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
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

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
Samuel Johnson

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
Samuel Johnson

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
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

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.
Samuel Johnson

Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
Samuel Johnson

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Samuel Johnson

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Samuel Johnson

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
Samuel Johnson

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.
Samuel Johnson

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
Samuel Johnson

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
Samuel Johnson

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
Samuel Johnson

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
Samuel Johnson

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
Samuel Johnson

Exercise is labor without weariness.
Samuel Johnson

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
Samuel Johnson

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
Samuel Johnson

Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.
Samuel Johnson

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
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

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
Samuel Johnson

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
Samuel Johnson

He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.
Samuel Johnson

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.
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

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
Samuel Johnson

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.
Samuel Johnson

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.
Samuel Johnson

I am aware that by many persons, it is considered in the nature of a joke to to become a candidate and to be elected as a member of the Legislature.
Samuel Johnson

I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Samuel Johnson

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
Samuel Johnson

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.
Samuel Johnson

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

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
Samuel Johnson

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
Samuel Johnson

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.
Samuel Johnson

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
Samuel Johnson

If a man does not make new acquaintances 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

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
Samuel Johnson

Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
Samuel Johnson

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Samuel Johnson

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
Samuel Johnson

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Samuel Johnson

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