Samuel Johnson > Quotes

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”
― Samuel Johnson

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
― Samuel Johnson, Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II

“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.”
― Samuel Johnson

“My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. ”
― Samuel Johnson

“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
― Samuel Johnson, Works of Samuel Johnson

“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
― Samuel Johnson, Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II

“I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.”
― Samuel Johnson

“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”
― Samuel Johnson

“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times ... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Johnson, Volume IV

“Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?”
― Samuel Johnson

“Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol. II

“It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.”
― Samuel Johnson

“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life Of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 4

“There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
― Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

“You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Nothing [...] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”
― Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.”
― Samuel Johnson

“To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.”
― Samuel Johnson, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland & The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
― Samuel Johnson

“While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.”
― Samuel Johnson

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson, vol 1

“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol. III

“This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol. II

“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent. ”
― Samuel Johnson

“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.”
― Samuel Johnson

“He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise. ”
― Samuel Johnson

“In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.”
― Samuel Johnson

“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“A 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 may hit.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”
― Samuel Johnson, Rasselas

“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 one book.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol. II

“You can never be wise unless you love reading.”
― Samuel Johnson, Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of Atour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales, Volume 4; Volu

“A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Johnson, Volume IV

“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Idler; Poems

“If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol. III

“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”
― Samuel Johnson

“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”
― Samuel Johnson