Samuel Johnson Quotes
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As the Spanish proverb says, 'He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.' So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.
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He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.
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When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
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Hawkesworth said of Johnson, 'You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.'
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The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
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Sir, what is Poetry? Why, Sir, it is much easier to say what it is not. We all know what light is: but it is not easy to tell what it is.
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In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
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How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
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No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
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I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; - one, that I have lost all the names, - the other, that I have spent all the money.
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One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
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What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
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Ah! let not Censure term our fate our choice, The stage but echoes back the public's voice; The drama's laws the drama's patrons give, For we that live to please must please to live.
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As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.
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He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.
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The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.
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Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any high degree; only about as much as is used in the lower kinds of poetry.
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Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.
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Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!From Marlb'rough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,And Swift expires, a driv'ler and a show.
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A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.
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Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
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The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.
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The poet must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.
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I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.