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Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 46

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 seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief.

Sleep, Doors, Law

Samuel Johnson (2012). “Lives of the Poets”, p.119, tredition

I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences, you are to tell the truth.

Truth, Lying, Men

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1818). “The table talk of Samuel Johnson”, p.100

I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they were rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves and of one another.

School, Boys, Rome

Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.473

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

Scotland, England, High Road

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 6 July 1763)

Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.

Uncertain, Stability, Bases

Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.133

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.

Wisdom, Sorrow, Useless

Samuel Johnson (1816). “A Diary of a Journey Into North Wales, in the Year 1774”, p.152

That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Life, Men, Progress

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

What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.

Laughter, Pardon, Said

Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.208

If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still

Thinking, Life And Death, Life Death

Samuel Johnson, Robert ARMITAGE (1850). “Doctor Johnson: his religious life and his death. By the author of “Dr. Hookwell,” etc. [Robert Armitage].”, p.478

Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not resolution to fire it off himself, but left half a crown to a beggarly Scotsman to draw the trigger at his death.

Fire, Religion, Coward

"The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D". Book by James Boswell, 1791.

The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head and he picks it up and buy victuals with it, the physical effect is good. But with respect to me the action is very wrong.

Crowns, Half, Morality

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.349

To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.

Two, Use, May

"The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D". Book by James Boswell, 1791.

I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of the earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things which they denote.

Daughter, Son, Science

A Dictionary of the English Language preface (1755)

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of language.

Enlargement, Language, Stability

'A Dictionary of the English Language' (1755) preface (on citations of usage in a dictionary)

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.

Love, Sorrow, Useless

Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.107

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

Love, Friendship, Men

Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume II: 1773-1776”, p.267, Princeton University Press

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is good enough to be a clergyman.

Men, Not Good Enough, Heaven

"The Sayings of Doctor Johnson".

Our minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them.

Evil, Mind, Empty

Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.

Men, Gambling, Property

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.93

Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.

Men, Giving, Humanity

As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.

Peace, War, Purpose

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

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

Happiness, Trying, Care

Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.

Power, Envy, May

Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.58, Harvard University Press

All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.

Thinking, Envy, Desire

Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.31

Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.

Men, Thinking, Envy

Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.101, Univ of California Press

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