Top 25 Quotes by Samuel Johnson of 1744 - Page 42

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.

Samuel Johnson

Hope, Comfort, Captivity

The Rambler No. 67

Knowledge always desires increase, it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external agent, but which will afterwards propagate itself.

Samuel Johnson

Knowledge, Fire, Desire

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1807). “Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson”, p.105

Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.

Samuel Johnson

Life, Pills, Bears

Hester Lynch Piozzi, Samuel Johnson (1826). “Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the last twenty years of his life”, p.65

Learn that the present hour alone is man's.

Samuel Johnson

Life, Learning, Men

Samuel Johnson (1754). “Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. By Mr. Samuel Johnson”, p.35

Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.

Samuel Johnson

Life, Blessing, Use

Samuel Johnson (1782). “The Beauties of Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous, Accurately Extracted from the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Arranged in Alphabetical Order, After the Manner of the Duke de la Roche-Foucault's Maxims”, p.47

The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.

Samuel Johnson

Life, Drama, Law

'Prologue spoken at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane' (1747)

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

Samuel Johnson

Life, Wise, Eye

Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Poems of Dr. Samuel Johnson. To which is Prefixed, a Life of the Author”, p.39

Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how soon he dies!

Samuel Johnson

Life, Summer, Time

Samuel Johnson, Francis William Blagdon (1811). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia”, p.184

Rain is good for vegetables, and for the animals who eat those vegetables, and for the animals who eat those animals.

Samuel Johnson

Nature, Rain, Animal

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “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.493

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

Samuel Johnson

Patience, Be Patient, Vain

Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.32

For patience, sov'reign o'er transmuted ill.

Samuel Johnson

Patience, Reign, Ill

Tobias George Smollett, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith (1810). “The Poetical Works of Doctors Smollett, Johnson, and Goldsmith”

In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that, if properly applied might remove the cause.

Samuel Johnson

Patience, Evil, Might

"The Rambler".

Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.

Samuel Johnson

Cutting, Rocks, Poetry

To Hannah More, who had expressed a wonder that the poet who had written 'Paradise Lost' should write such poor Sonnets, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 305 (13 June 1784)

The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.

Samuel Johnson

Essence, Poetry, Delight

Samuel Johnson (1819). “The lives of the most eminent English poets, with critical observations on their works”, p.201

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

Samuel Johnson

Lying, Men, Long

In James Boswell 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (1785) 14 September 1773

He that teaches us anything which we knew not before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master.

Samuel Johnson

Inspirational, Education, Teacher

Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1787). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous, to which are Now Added, Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Late Productions of Mrs. Piozzi, Mr. Boswell, ...”, p.9

Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.

Samuel Johnson

Evil, Degrees, Wickedness

Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.53

Almost all the moral good which is left among us is the apparent effect of physical evil.

Samuel Johnson

Evil, Wickedness, Moral

Samuel Johnson, William Page (1860). “Life and Writings”, p.321

Greece appears to be the fountain of knowledge; Rome of elegance

Samuel Johnson

Rome, Culture, Elegance

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1807). “Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson”, p.199

The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

Samuel Johnson

Happiness, Laughter, Men

"Johnsoniana, Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson".

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

Samuel Johnson

Believe, Adventure, Accomplishment

Samuel Johnson (1828). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.199

He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Samuel Johnson

Fear, Wind, Storm

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1811). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes”, p.118

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

Samuel Johnson

Happiness, Pride, Power

Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.224