Famous Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- He that fails in his endeavours after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or... More
- Piety practised in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to... More
- Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which... More
- The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are... More
- A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife... More
- Long-expected one and twenty
Ling’ring year at last is flown,
Pomp and pleasure, pride... More
- If the guardian or the mother
Tell the woes of willful waste,
Scorn their counsel and... More
- Loosened from the minor’s tether;
Free to mortgage or to sell,
Wild as wind, and light... More
- Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to... More
- Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world... More
- Johnson did not answer ...; but talking for victory and determined to be master of the field, he... More
- I suggested a doubt, that if I were to reside in London, the exquisite zest with which I relished... More
- BOSWELL. But what do you think of supporting a cause which you know to be bad? JOHNSON. “Sir,... More
- BOSWELL. “I have often blamed myself, Sir, for not feeling for others as sensibly as many say... More
- BOSWELL “ ... Is not the fear of death natural to man?” JOHNSON. “So much so, Sir, that the... More
- No man is by nature the property of another. The defendant is, therefore, by nature free. More
- An ancient estate should always go to males. It is mighty foolish to let a stranger have it... More
- If you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you... More
- He [Johnson] talked of the heinousness of the crime of adultery, by which the peace of families... More
- “My dear Sir, you don’t call Rousseau bad company. Do you really think him a bad man?...”... More
- He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For,... More
- Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expense.... More
- On his favourite subject of subordination, Johnson said, “So far is it from being true that men... More
- We talked of the education of children; and I asked him what he thought was best to teach them... More
- We stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley’s ingenious sophistry to prove the... More
- I told him that Goldsmith had said,... “As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from... More
- Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day when I was at her... More
- Sir, there is more knowledge in a letter of Richardson’s, than in all Tom Jones. More
- his bow-wow way More
- His Majesty enquired if he was then writing any thing. He answered, he was not, for he had pretty... More
- Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but... More
- I [Boswell] ... insisted that admiration was more pleasing than judgment, as love is more... More
- Now ... that you are going to marry, do not expect more from life, than life will afford.” More
- I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him. You have no... More
- Fielding being mentioned, Johnson exclaimed, “he was a blockhead ....” BOSWELL. “Will you... More
- Talking of our feeling for the distresses of others;MJOHNSON. “Why, Sir, there is much noise... More
- What is the reason that women servants ... have much lower wages than men servants ... when in... More
- Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined... More
- As we walked along the Strand to-night, arm in arm, a woman of the town accosted us, in the usual... More
- “Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it”.... “That,... More
- Nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last. More
- When I censured a gentleman of my acquaintance for marrying a second time, as it shewed a... More
- I have accepted a pension as a reward which has been thought due to my literary merit; and now... More
- I will take no more physick, not even my opiates; for I have prayed that I may render up my soul... More
- The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for... More
- Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. More
- Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with... More
- Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and... More
- Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the... More
- I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave,... More
- Forgetfulness is necessary to remembrance. Ideas are retained by renovation of that impression... More
- To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavours with... More
- Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit... More
- Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force. More
- When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I... More
- Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water,... More
- At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest. More
- Life of Ages, richly poured,
Love of God unspent and free,
Flowing in the Prophet’s... More
- This mournful truth is ev’rywhere confessed,
Slow rises worth by poverty depressed. More
- Here falling houses thunder on your head,
And here a female atheist talks you dead. More
- Prepare for death, if here at night you roam,
And sign your will before you sup from home. More
- Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair,
The midnight murderer bursts the faithless... More
- Abstinence is as easy to me, as temperance would be difficult. More
- It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be... More
- Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. More
- Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavours to appropriate the esteem or... More
- Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change... More
- In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness. More
- Then with no fiery throbbing pain,
No cold gradations of decay,
Death broke at once the... More
- His virtues walked their narrow round,
Nor made a pause, nor left a void;
And sure the... More
- Condemned to Hope’s delusive mine,
As on we toil from day to day,
By sudden blasts or... More
- The work of a correct and regular writer is a garden accurately formed and diligently planted,... More
- His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he... More
- Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed: More
- A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapours are to the traveller: he follows it at all... More
- The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject;... More
- The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give,
For we that live to please, must please to live. More
- From Bard, to Bard, the frigid Caution crept,
Till Declamation roar’d, while Passion slept. More
- When Learning’s Triumph o’er her barb’rous Foes
First rear’d the Stage, immortal... More
- Their Cause was gen’ral, their Supports were strong,
Their Slaves were willing, and their... More
- Hard is his lot, that here by Fortune plac’d,
Must watch the wild Vicissitudes of Taste; More
- The Stage but echoes back the publick Voice.
The Drama’s Laws the Drama’s Patrons... More
- I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with... More
- A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or... More
- A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but... More
- A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. More
- It is the only sensual pleasure without vice. More
- What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. More
- Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible. More
- It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us... More
- I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can... More
- Great abilites are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the... More
- No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. More
- Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped... More
- A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority. More
- Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but he could not carve heads... More
- Men hate more steadily than they love. More
- I would advise you Sir, to study algebra, if you are not already an adept in it: your head would... More
- A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner. More
- Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content... More
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