Samuel Johnson Quotes
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And sure th' Eternal Master foundHis single talent well employ'd.
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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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Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?
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A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
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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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A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
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By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.
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There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.
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I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.
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Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
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Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
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Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
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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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The insolence of wealth will creep out.
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I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject.
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Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
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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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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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Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
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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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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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When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
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A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,No dangers fright him, and no labors tire.
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Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.