Top 25 Quotes by Samuel Johnson of 1744 - Page 20

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

Samuel Johnson

People, Simplicity, Bears

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.114

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Money, Work

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 5 Apr. 1776)

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Poetry, Uniting

Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Lives of the Most Eminent Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works”, p.120

There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.

Samuel Johnson

Envy, Causes, Chance

Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.116

That all who are happy are equally happy is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. A small drinking glass and a large one may be equally full, but the large one holds more than the small.

Samuel Johnson

Happiness, Drinking, Insperational

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.227

There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree to be weary alike of pleasures and of cares; that the powerful and the weak, the celebrated and obscure, join in one common wish, and implore from nature's hand the nectar of oblivion.

Samuel Johnson

Powerful, Hands, Humanity

Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.127

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Samuel Johnson

Strong, Light, Torches

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.27

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

Samuel Johnson

Birthday, Sex, Giving Up

Samuel Johnson (2002). “A Johnson Sampler”, Non Pareil Books

We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass.

Samuel Johnson

Love, Temptation, Wish

Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.257

Without good humour, learning and bravery can only confer that superiority which swells the heart of the lion in the desert, where he roars without reply, and ravages without resistance. Without good humour virtue may awe by its dignity and amaze by its brightness, but must always be viewed at a distance, and will scarcely gain a friend or attract an imitator.

Samuel Johnson

Distance, Heart, Bravery

Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.102

I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian.

Samuel Johnson

Hope, Cheating, Thinking

Referring to 'Ossian' in a letter to James Macpherson, 20 January 1775: James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 298

He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing.

Samuel Johnson

Focus, Desire, Different

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.209

By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations to petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences, are avoided. An author cannot obtrude his service unasked, nor can be often suspected of any malignant intention to insult his readers with his knowledge or his wit. Yet so prevalent is the habit of comparing ourselves with others, while they remain within the reach of our passions, that books are seldom read with complete impartiality, but by those from whom the writer is placed at such a distance that his life or death is indifferent.

Samuel Johnson

Distance, Book, Passion

"The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius".

That distrust which intrudes so often on your mind is a mode of melancholy, which, if it be the business of a wise man to be happy, it is foolish to indulge; and if it be a duty to preserve our faculties entire for their proper use, it is criminal. Suspicion is very often an useless pain.

Samuel Johnson

Wise, Pain, Men

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.132

It would add much to human happiness, if an art could be taught of forgetting all of which the remembrance is at once useless and afflictive, that the mind might perform its functions without encumbrance, and the past might no longer encroach upon the present.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Memories, Past

Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.82, Harvard University Press

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

Samuel Johnson

Men, States, Luxurious

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.271

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Samuel Johnson

Political, Overcoming, May

"Johnson. History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abyssinia, Ed. With Intr. And Notes By G.b. Hill".

That we must all die, we always knew, I wish I had sooner remembred it.

Samuel Johnson

Wish, Remembered, Dies

"The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume IV: 1782-1784".

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Samuel Johnson

Battle, Adversaries

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1786). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales”, p.32

Love is only one of many passions.

Samuel Johnson

Passion, Love Is

'The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes' (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 63)

Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Curiosity, Mind

Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.163, Univ of California Press

Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them.

Samuel Johnson

Hands, Mind, Influence

Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.87

Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.

Samuel Johnson

Perseverance, Writing, Effort

Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.145

Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature.

Samuel Johnson

Pain, Stupid, Taken

On Thomas Sheridan, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 453 (28 July 1763)

Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain.

Samuel Johnson

Girl, Passion, Heart

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.256