Samuel Johnson Quotes
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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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There Poetry shall tune her sacred voice,And wake from ignorance the Western World.
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Blown about with every wind of criticism.
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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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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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I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.
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So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
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The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.
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Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
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When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
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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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Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.
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Of Lord Chesterfield This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!
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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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The future is purchased by the present.
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How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
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We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
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Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
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One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
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What is easy is seldom excellent.
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Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
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There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed.
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I refute it thus.