Samuel Johnson Quotes

A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.

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.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances; it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.

Reason and truth will prevail at last

[C]ourage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.

Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children; and those who marry early, with their partners.

Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.

Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats, And ask no questions but the price of votes.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.

None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.

Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.

Your first great duties, you are sensible, are those you owe to Heaven, to your Creator and Redeemer. Let these be ever present to your minds, and exemplified in your lives and conduct.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.

We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves.

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the certainty and stability of science.

Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise.

The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.

To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.

Bias and impartiality is in the eye of the beholder.

The insolence of wealth will creep out.

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed that happiness as well as virtue consists in mediocrity.

Beauty, without kindness, dies unenjoyed and undelighting.

Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own.

The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.