Samuel Johnson Quotes
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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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Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
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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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Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
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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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Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
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All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.
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The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
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Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
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What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
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The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.
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Was ever poet so trusted before?
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With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind,And makes the happiness she does not find.
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Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
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To let friendship die away by negligence and silence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage.
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Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
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Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
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From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
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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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As with my hat upon my headI walk'd along the Strand,I there did meet another manWith his hat in his hand.
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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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He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
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Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.
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Wretched un-idea'd girls.