Samuel JohnsonAbuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1840). The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson..., p.51371Life
Samuel JohnsonThe true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction. ✨ 'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Cowley'371PoliticsThoughtTruth
Samuel JohnsonTo strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay o… ▶371HumanityLife
Samuel JohnsonMen seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1840). The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson..., p.308371Life
Samuel JohnsonThe misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswel… ▶371Time
Samuel JohnsonSome read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed; another regards not the conclusion, but is diligent to m… ▶371LifeReadingReflection
Samuel JohnsonEvery other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums. ✨ Samuel Johnson (2009). … ▶371HumanityPolitics
Samuel JohnsonIt would add much to human happiness, if an art could be taught of forgetting all of which the remembrance is at once useless and afflictive, that the mind might perform its funct… ▶361HumanityThoughtTime
Samuel JohnsonHappiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty. ✨ Samuel Johnson, John Hawkesworth (1820). Rasselas, prince of Abissinia, p.… ▶372Humanity
Samuel JohnsonI 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. ✨… ▶372LifeThought
Samuel JohnsonI 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, James Bos… ▶351PoliticsTruth
Samuel JohnsonOur desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Mu… ▶373Reflection
Samuel JohnsonIt is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions are ready to rec… ▶373LoveReading
Samuel JohnsonIf we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1827). The Rambler, p.220373Reflection
Samuel JohnsonPower is not sufficient evidence of truth.351PoliticsTruth
Samuel JohnsonLet me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich. ✨ In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 79 (6 October 1769); responding to a line from Garrick'… ▶362Life
Samuel JohnsonThe wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1836). Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sa… ▶362Love
Samuel JohnsonEvery man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Wi… ▶351Life
Samuel JohnsonLanguage is the dress of thought. ✨ Lives of the English Poets Cowley (1779 - 1781)362Thought
Samuel JohnsonWhen there is no hope, there can be no endeavor. ✨ Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 375-78, The Rambler No. 110, 1922.373Hope
Samuel JohnsonEvery man is of importance to himself.351Philosophy
Samuel JohnsonA translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Roger H. Lonsdale (2006). Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets, p.125, Oxford Un… ▶341Humor
Samuel JohnsonOf all the grief's that harass the distressed; sure the most bitter is a scornful jest. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Thomas Park (1811). The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated … ▶352Sadness
Samuel JohnsonHe that would travel for the entertainment of others, should remember that the great object of remark is human life. Every Nation has something peculiar in its Manufactures, its W… ▶341HumanityLifeReading
Samuel JohnsonSir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding. ✨ Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for June 1784)341Life
Samuel JohnsonHe that teaches us anything which we knew not before is undoubtedly to be reverenced as a master. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1787). The Beauties o… ▶341Reading
Samuel JohnsonFear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize … ▶341LifeLove
Samuel JohnsonA man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he… ▶352HopePhilosophy
Samuel JohnsonOats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people. ✨ A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)341Humanity
Samuel JohnsonTo do nothing is in everyone's power.341Politics
