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Samuel Johnson

363 quotes

“Johnson said that he could repeat a complete chapter of "The Natural History of Iceland" from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus: "There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island." 62 [Chap. lxxii.]”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1778 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1778)
“The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1778 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1778)
“I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."... There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1779 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1779)
“The potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1780?)
“He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1784)
“You see they'd have fitted him to a T.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1784)
“Blown about with every wind of criticism.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1784)
“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As with my hat upon my head I walk'd along the Strand, I there did meet another man With his hat in his hand.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His conversation does not show the minute-hand, but he strikes the hour very correctly.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To-morrow's action! Can that hoary wisdom, Borne down with years, still doat upon tomorrow! That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy, The coward, and the fool, condemn'd to lose A useless life in waiting for to-morrow, To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow, Till interposing death destroys the prospect Strange! that this general fraud from day to day Should fill the world with wretches undetected. The soldier, labouring through a winter's march, Still sees to-morrow drest in robes of triumph; Still to the lover's long-expecting arms To-morrow brings the visionary bride. But thou, too old to hear another cheat, Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1749 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Tragedy of Irene (1749), Act III, Sc. 2
“There is one writer, and, perhaps, many who do not write, to whom the contraction of these pernicious privileges appears very dangerous, and who startle at the thoughts of England free, and America in chains. Children fly from their own shadow, and rhetoricians are frighted by their own voices. Chains is, undoubtedly, a dreadful word; but, perhaps, the masters of civil wisdom may discover some gradations between chains and anarchy. Chains need not be put upon those who will be restrained without them. This contest may end in the softer phrase of English superiority and American obedience. We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties; an event, which none but very perspicacious politicians are able to foresee. If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1775 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taxation No Tyranny (1775)
“O Lord, my Maker and Protector, who hast graciously sent me into this world, to work out my salvation, enable me to drive from me all such unquiet and perplexing thoughts as may mislead or hinder me in the practice of those duties which thou hast required. When I behold the works of thy hands and consider the course of thy providence, give me Grace always to remember that thy thoughts are not my thoughts, nor thy ways my ways. And while it shall please Thee to continue me in this world where much is to be done and little to be known, teach me by thy Holy Spirit to withdraw my mind from unprofitable and dangerous enquiries, from difficulties vainly curious, and doubts impossible to be solved. Let me rejoice in the light which thou hast imparted, let me serve thee with active zeal, and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest, shall be satisfied with knowledge.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Against Inquisitive and Perplexing Thoughts" (12 August 1784), published in Prayers and Meditations (1785)
“All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-axe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings. It is therefore of the utmost importance that those, who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reason, and their spirit, the power of persisting in their purposes; acquire the art of sapping what they cannot batter, and the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance by obstinate attacks.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1750 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: No. 43 (14 August 1750)
“It is the fate of those, who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries, whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Perpetual levity must end in ignorance; and intemperance, though it may fire the spirits for an hour, will make life short or miserable. Let us consider that youth is of no long duration, and that in maturer age, when the enchantments of fancy shall cease, and phantoms of delight dance no more about us, we shall have no comforts but the esteem of wise men, and the means of doing good. Let us, therefore, stop, while to stop is in our power: let us live as men who are sometime to grow old, and to whom it will be the most dreadful of all evils not to count their past years but by follies, and to be reminded of their former luxuriance of health only by the maladies which riot has produced.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That the dead are seen no more," said Imlac, "I will not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth: those that never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence, and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter, or that every particle is a thinking being. Yet, if any part of matter be devoid of thought, what part can we suppose to think? Matter can differ from matter only in form, density, bulk, motion, and direction of motion: to which of these, however varied or combined, can consciousness be annexed? To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be great or little, to be moved slowly or swiftly one way or another, are modes of material existence, all equally alien from the nature of cogitation. If matter be once without thought, it can only be made to think by some new modification, but all the modifications which it can admit are equally unconnected with cogitative powers.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion. The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent, when the clamour continues after the evil is past.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The change of religion in Scotland, eager and vehement as it was, raised an epidemical enthusiasm, compounded of sullen scrupulousness and warlike ferocity, which, in a people whom idleness resigned to their own thoughts, and who conversing only with each other, suffered no dilution of their zeal from the gradual influx of new opinions, was long transmitted in its full strength from the old to the young, but by trade and intercourse with England, is now visibly abating, and giving way too fast to their laxity of practice and indifference of opinion, in which men, not sufficiently instructed to find the middle point, too easily shelter themselves from rigour and constraint.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not by comparing line with line, that the merit of great works is to be estimated, but by their general effects and ultimate result. It is easy to note a weak line, and write one more vigorous in its place; to find a happiness of expression in the original, and transplant it by force into the version: but what is given to the parts may be subducted from the whole, and the reader may be weary, though the critick may commend. Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away. He only is the master, who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. Consider, sir; what is the purpose of courts of justice? It is, that every man may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed to try causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he knows to be a lie: he is not to produce what he knows to be a false deed; but he is not to usurp the province of the jury and of the judge, and determine what shall be the effect of evidence — what shall be the result of legal argument.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1773 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (15 August 1773)
“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) first seen 1762 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (8 June 1762) [to an unnamed recipient], p. 103
“There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,-- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,-- Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“For we that live to please must please to live.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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 (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“That saw the manners in the face.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove The pangs of guilty power and hapless love! Rest here, distressed by poverty no more; Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before; Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that _words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven_.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“What is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“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 access of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature.”
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) said by 1784 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source