Samuel Johnson Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Samuel Johnson on Wise Famous Quotes.
Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.
Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
The necessary connexion of representatives with taxes, seems to have sunk deep into many of those minds, that admit sounds, without their meaning.
It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
Every desire is a viper in the bosom, who while he was chill was harmless; but when warmth gave him strength, exerted it in poison.
I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
Pride is undoubtedly the original of anger; but pride, like every other passion, if it once breaks loose from reason, counteracts its own purposes.
Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.
Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others.
Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health.
As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it.
Of many, imagined blessings it may be doubted whether he that wants or possesses them had more reason to be satisfied with his lot.
I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered.
None of the projects or designs which exercise the mind of man are equally subject to obstructions and disappointments with the pursuit of fame.
I would rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside
To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.
He who is extravagant will quickly become poor; and poverty will enforce dependence, and invite corruption.
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them.
What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.
To correspond to; to suit with. In water face answereth to face: so the heart of man to man.BibleProv.xxvii. 19.7.
Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other.
Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.
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;
In the description of night in Macbeth, the beetle and the bat detract from the general idea of darkness - inspissated gloom.
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.
I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.
To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue is the great prerogative of innocence
an exemption granted only to invariable virtue.
an exemption granted only to invariable virtue.
If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor.
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.
The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.