Samuel Johnson Quotes
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At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
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You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
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Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
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It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
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We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
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The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
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I am glad that he thanks God for anything.
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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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With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind,And makes the happiness she does not find.
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So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
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Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!
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I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.
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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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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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Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.
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The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.
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Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
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Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
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Unmoved though Witlings sneer and Rivals rail, Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail. He scorns the meek address, the suppliant strain. With merit needless, and without it vain. In Reason, Nature, Truth, he dares to trust: Ye Fops, be silent: and ye Wits, be just.
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I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me.
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Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
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I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, 'Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.'
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He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
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Johnson said that he could repeat a complete chapter of 'The Natural History of Iceland' from the Danish of Horrebow, the whole of which was exactly thus: 'There are no snakes to be met with throughout the whole island.' 62 Chap. lxxii.