Samuel Johnson Quotes:- Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [OS 7 September] – 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer.
Inspirational Samuel Johnson Quotes
“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
“It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.”-Samuel Johnson
“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.”-Samuel Johnson
“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.”-Samuel Johnson
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”-Samuel Johnson
“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”-Samuel Johnson
“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”-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 constant repair.”-Samuel Johnson
“To love one that is great is almost to be great one’s self.”-Samuel Johnson
“Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.”-Samuel Johnson
“Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.”-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
“The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.”-Samuel Johnson
Famous Samuel Johnson Quotes
“When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.”-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
“Many things difficult to design prove easy to perform.”-Samuel Johnson
“Words are but the signs of ideas.”-Samuel Johnson
“What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, Prove false again? Two hundred more.”-Samuel Johnson
“Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyment.”-Samuel Johnson
“The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.”-Samuel Johnson
“The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams and dreams realities.”-Samuel Johnson
“Books like friends should be few and well-chosen.”-Samuel Johnson
“From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.”-Samuel Johnson
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”-Samuel Johnson
“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”-Samuel Johnson
“To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.”-Samuel Johnson
“Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.”-Samuel Johnson
Best Samuel Johnson Quotes
“Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.”-Samuel Johnson
“It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.”-Samuel Johnson
“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.”-Samuel Johnson
“The true art of memory is the art of attention.”-Samuel Johnson
“When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.”-Samuel Johnson
“No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.”-Samuel Johnson
“Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.”-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
“It is reasonable to have perfection in our eyes that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.”-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
“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
“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent on reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.”-Samuel Johnson
Greatest Samuel Johnson Quotes
“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”-Samuel Johnson
“Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.”-Samuel Johnson
“He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.”-Samuel Johnson
“Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.”-Samuel Johnson
“The disease generally begins the equality in which death completes.”-Samuel Johnson
“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”-Samuel Johnson
“It is better than some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.”-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
“You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.”-Samuel Johnson
“A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.”-Samuel Johnson
“It is better to live rich than to die rich.”-Samuel Johnson
“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”-Samuel Johnson
“The usual fortune of the complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.”-Samuel Johnson
Top Samuel Johnson Quotes
“A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.”-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
“There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.”-Samuel Johnson
“Every man who attacks my belief diminishes to some degree my confidence in it and therefore makes me uneasy, and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.”-Samuel Johnson
“Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eaten and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.”-Samuel Johnson
“Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.”-Samuel Johnson
“Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.”-Samuel Johnson
“The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.”-Samuel Johnson
“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.”-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
“Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.”-Samuel Johnson
“Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.”-Samuel Johnson
“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”-Samuel Johnson
