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Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 39

All Quotes Abstinence Abuse Accidents Achievement Adventure Advertising Affection Age Aging Alcohol Ambition Anxiety Appearance Appreciation Army Arrogance Art Atheism Attitude Authority Being Yourself Belief Benevolence Bitterness Blindness Bravery Business Change Character Charity Childhood Children Choices Church Civility Communication Community Compassion Confidence Consciousness Cooking Corruption Country Courage Crime Criticism Culture Curiosity Darkness Death Deception Defeat Design Desire Determination Devil Difficulty Dignity Disappointment Doubt Drinking Duty Dying Education Effort Elegance Energy English Language Envy Equality Evidence Evil Excellence Exercise Expectations Failing Failure Fame Fashion Fate Fear Feelings Flattery Flight Focus Food Freedom Friends Friendship Funny Future Genius Giving Glory Gold Goodness Grace Gratitude Greatness Grief Grieving Guilt Happiness Hate Hatred Health Heart Heaven History Home Honesty Honor Hope House Humanity Hunger Hurt Husband Hypocrisy Ignorance Imagination Imitation Imperfection Injury Innocence Inspirational Integrity Intelligence Journey Joy Judgement Judging Judgment Justice Kindness Knowledge Labor Language Laughter Laziness Learning Liberty Life Life And Death Life And Love Literature Losing Loss Love Lying Mankind Manners Marriage Meditation Memories Miscarriage Modesty Money Morality Morning Motivational Nature Office Opportunity Originality Overcoming Pain Passion Past Patience Peace Perfection Perseverance Philosophy Pleasure Poetry Politics Positive Positive Thinking Poverty Power Praise Prejudice Preparation Pride Privacy Progress Property Prosperity Prudence Purpose Quality Reading Reality Reflection Regret Rejection Religion Repentance Reputation Resentment Respect Retirement Revenge Revolution Sacrifice Safety Sailing School Science Security Self Esteem Self Love Shame Silence Sin Sleep Sloth Society Solitude Sorrow Soul Spring Struggle Study Stupidity Style Success Suffering Sunshine Talent Teaching Temptation Theatre Time Tragedy Travel Trust Truth Tyranny Uncertainty Understanding Values Violence Virtue Waiting Wall War Water Weakness Wealth Whiskey Wife Wine Winter Wisdom Wit Work Worry Writing Youth

It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls.

It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of our own souls.

Soul, Done, May

In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 10 (February 1766)

It is a common error, and the greater and more mischievous for being so common, to believe that repentance best becomes and most concerns dying men. Indeed, what is necessary every hour of our life is necessary in the hour of death too, and as long as one lives he will have need of repentance, and therefore it is necessary in the hour of death too; but he who hath constantly exercised himself in it in his health and vigor, will do it with less pain in his sickness and weakness; and he who hath practiced it all his life, will do it with more ease and less perplexity in the hour of his death.

Pain, Believe, Men

A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view, and display it to the fancy with greater dignity; but either of these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it.... That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit, independently of its references, a pleasing image; for a simile is said to be a short episode.

Views, Perfect, Understanding

Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British poets completed by W. Hazlitt”, p.226

The imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude of parks and gardens... The phantoms which haunt a desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and how little he can perform.

Men, Garden, Views

Samuel Johnson (1824). “Works: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.255

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Love, Inspirational, Life

'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Butler'

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Life, Men, Complaining

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

Birthday, Humanity, Care

Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume II: 1773-1776”, p.75, Princeton University Press

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

Happiness, Men, Wife

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

Friendship, Life And Love, Love Is

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.216

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

Ambition, Home, Desire

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.112

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

Truth, Lying, World

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1807). “Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson”, p.67

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Secret, Action, Motive

Samuel Johnson, Roger H. Lonsdale (2006). “Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets”, p.330, Oxford University Press

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Mind, Breaking Away, Anticipation

Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.3

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Conversation, Impression, Remembered

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.45

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

Travel, Jail, Sailing

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 16 Mar. 1759)

It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye; that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.

Eye, Perfection, May

"The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes". Volume III,

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

Rainy Day, Advice, Enemy

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (letter to Boswell, 7 Dec. 1782)

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

Children, Way, Better Ways

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

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.

Lying, Mean, Men

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.486

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

Men, Genius, Ruined

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.313

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

Horse, Pet, Criticism

In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 263, n. 3 (1754)

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

Advice, Welcome, Wanted

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.

Death, Time, Men

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 26 Oct. 1769)

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

Daughter, Mother, Done

Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.5

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Life, Long, Too Much

Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.273, Princeton University Press

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