Authors - Samuel Johnson
Brief Biography
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 - 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. - Wikipedia
Quotes by Samuel JohnsonBrowse all of these
Quote 1060by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.
Quote 1137by Anonymous on 10/01/2011
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.
Quote 1356by Anonymous on 12/01/2011
Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.
Quote 1730by Anonymous on 16/01/2011
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Quote 2325by Anonymous on 27/01/2011
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
Quote 2677by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
A second marriage is the triumph of hope over experience.
Quote 2686by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Quote 2824by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Quote 3083by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
Quote 3110by Anonymous on 03/02/2011
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Quote 3808by Anonymous on 10/02/2011
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
Quote 4528by Anonymous on 22/02/2011
Sex: the expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
Quote 4784by Anonymous on 27/02/2011
Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
Quote 5187by Anonymous on 03/06/2011
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
Quote 5455by Anonymous on 02/07/2011
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.
Quote 5526by Anonymous on 11/07/2011
Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self- interest.
Quote 5720by Anonymous on 21/08/2011
He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man.
Quote 5966by Anonymous on 09/09/2011
Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way.
Quote 6045by Anonymous on 12/09/2011
In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
Quote 6661by Anonymous on 03/10/2011
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.
Quote 7054by Anonymous on 18/10/2011
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.
Quote 7259by Anonymous on 30/10/2011
Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction produces rivalry.
Quote 7677by Anonymous on 17/01/2012
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
Quote 8552by Anonymous on 18/05/2012
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
Quote 9715by Anonymous on 15/08/2012
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.
Quote 9898by Anonymous on 31/08/2012
Exercise is the chief source of improvement in our faculties.
Quote 10275by Anonymous on 25/09/2012
A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
Quote 10841by Anonymous on 04/11/2012
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.
Quote 11037by Anonymous on 17/11/2012
Of all the griefs that harass the distrest, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.
Quote 12030by Anonymous on 18/02/2013
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
Quote 12424by Anonymous on 09/04/2013
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
Quote 12642by Anonymous on 05/05/2013
There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.
Quote 12680by Anonymous on 10/05/2013
It is better to live rich than to die rich.
Quote 12695by Anonymous on 12/05/2013
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
Quote 13060by Anonymous on 16/06/2013
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
Quote 13194by Anonymous on 27/06/2013
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
Quote 13688by Anonymous on 22/08/2013
There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.
