Samuel Johnson Quotes
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Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
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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.
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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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Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.
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A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over experience.
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Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.
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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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Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
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Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
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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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Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature.
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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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At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
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Hell is paved with good intentions.
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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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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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Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
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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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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.
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Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,And pause a while from learning to be wise.There mark what ills the scholar's life assail - Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
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I am glad that he thanks God for anything.
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The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.
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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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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!