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Samuel Johnson Quotes about Sorrow

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Grief is a species of idleness.

Grief is a species of idleness.

Letter to Mrs Thrale, 17 March 1773, in R. W. Chapman (ed.) 'The Letters of Samuel Johnson' (1952) vol. 1

There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.

Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1804). “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 works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, recently published by Mr. Boswell, and other authentic testimonies; also his will, and the sermon he wrote for the late Doctor Dodd”

The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow.

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.27

The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.

Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.249

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.

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

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.

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

Social sorrow loses half its pain.

Samuel Johnson (1787). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with His Life, and Notes on His Lives of the Poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In Eleven Volumes ...”, p.347

No man sympathizes with the sorrows of vanity.

Samuel Johnson (1851). “The beauties of Johnson: choice selections from his works”, p.94