Samuel Johnson Quotes
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God bless you, my dear!
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'Some,' answered Imlac, 'have indeed said that the soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
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The endearing elegance of female friendship.
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I refute it thus.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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No man is much pleased with a companion, who does not increase, in some respect, his fondness for himself.
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The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.
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Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
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If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim.
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A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.
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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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A thousand horrid Prodigies foretold it.A feeble government, eluded Laws,A factious Populace, luxurious Nobles,And all the maladies of stinking states.
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I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.
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Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones.
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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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Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do.
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But, scarce observ'd, the knowing and the boldFall in the gen'ral massacre of gold.
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The true art of memory is the art of attention.
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A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say.
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Let observation with extensive viewSurvey mankind, from China to Peru.
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English superiority and American obedience.
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That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
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There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, 'His memory is going.'
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Philips, whose touch harmonious could removeThe pangs of guilty power and hapless love!Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more;Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine,Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!