Samuel Johnson Quotes

A lexicographer a writer of dictionaries a harmless drudge.

~ Samuel Johnson

Dictionaries are like watches. The worst is better than none at all and even the best cannot be expected to run quite true.

~ Samuel Johnson

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.

~ Samuel Johnson

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected even when it is associated with vice.

~ Samuel Johnson

None are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing when we have made it the next wish is to change again.

~ Samuel Johnson

Such is the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change. The change itself is nothing. When we have made it the next wish is to change again.

~ Samuel Johnson

Moderation is commonly firm and firmness is commonly successful.

~ Samuel Johnson

Abstinence is as easy for me as temperance would be difficult.

~ Samuel Johnson

One of the disadvantages of wine is that is makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

~ Samuel Johnson

A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity.

~ Samuel Johnson

He that has much to do will do something wrong.

~ Samuel Johnson

None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.

~ Samuel Johnson

A man Sir should keep his friendship in constant repair.

~ Samuel Johnson

Nothing at all will be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

~ Samuel Johnson

I have found men more kind than I expected and less just.

~ Samuel Johnson

Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?

~ Samuel Johnson

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

~ Samuel Johnson

Kindness is in our power even when fondness is not.

~ Samuel Johnson

A fly Sir may sting a stately horse and make him wince but one is but an insect and the other a horse still.

~ Samuel Johnson

I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him you have no business with consequences you are to tell the truth.

~ Samuel Johnson

As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

~ Samuel Johnson

An Italian philosopher said that time was his estate an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation but will always abundantly repay the labors of industry and generally satisfy the most extensive desires if no part of it be suffered to lie in waste by negligence to be overrun with noxious plants or laid out for show rather than for use.

~ Samuel Johnson

Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate and may be offensive .

~ Samuel Johnson

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

~ Samuel Johnson

In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

~ Samuel Johnson

Oats n.s. A grain which in England is generally given to horses but in Scotland supports the people.

~ Samuel Johnson

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.

~ Samuel Johnson

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

~ Samuel Johnson

I live in the crowds of jollity not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

~ Samuel Johnson

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

~ Samuel Johnson

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

~ Samuel Johnson

To hear complaints is wearisome to the wretched and the happy alike.

~ Samuel Johnson

When any fit of gloominess or perversion of mind lays hold upon you make it a rule not to publish it by complaints.

~ Samuel Johnson

Despair is criminal.

~ Samuel Johnson

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

~ Samuel Johnson

As the Spanish proverb says 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.' So it is with traveling. A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

~ Samuel Johnson

Claret is the liquor for boys port for men but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

~ Samuel Johnson

Languages are the pedigree of nations.

~ Samuel Johnson

Every other author may aspire to praise the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.

~ Samuel Johnson

Read over your compositions and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine strike it out.

~ Samuel Johnson