Samuel Johnson Quotes

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.

They make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty.

Faults and defects every work of man must have.

All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied.

Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.

Men, however distinguished by external accidents or intrinsick qualities, have all the same wants, the same pains, and, as far as the senses are consulted, the same pleasures.

The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.

"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

There is no kind of idleness by which we are so easily seduced as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business.

Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry; whether ... learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames. Intentions must be gathered from acts.

If a man has a science to learn he must regularly and resolutely advance.

Nothing has tended more to retard the advancement of science than the disposition in vulgar minds to vilify what they cannot comprehend.

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.

Smoking is a shocking thing - blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us.

The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today

I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.

Of many, imagined blessings it may be doubted whether he that wants or possesses them had more reason to be satisfied with his lot.

...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.

Lectures were once useful; but now when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary.

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

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

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

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

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.

For who is pleased with himself.

Then with no throbs of fiery pain, No cold gradations of decay, Death broke at once the vital chain, And freed his soul the nearest way.

I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night, and then the nap takes me.

I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.

We may have many acquaintances, but we can have but few friends; this made Aristotle say that he that hath many friends hath none.

Pension: An allowance made to anyone without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.

Few things are so liberally bestowed, or squandered with so little effect, as good advice.

Little would be wanting to the happiness of life, if every man could conform to the right as soon as he was shown it.

No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.

Stand Firm for your country, and become a man Honour'd and lov'd: It were a noble life, To be found dead, embracing her.

He that never thinks can never be wise.

One of the aged greatest miseries is that they cannot easily find a companion able to share the memories of the past.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans; we may therefore subject them to government.

Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown their form or told their use.

Many falsehoods are passing into uncontradicted history.

If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.

Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.

Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation.

The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances.

It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.

As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.

Friendship is not always the sequel of obligation.

Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive.

All imposture weakens confidence and chills benevolence.

The happiness of building lasted but a little while, for though I love to spend, I hate to be cheated; and I soon found, that to build is to be robbed.