Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 27

• It is very common for us to desire most what we are least qualified to obtain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Desire, Common, Qualified

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.38

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• The resolution of the combat is seldom equal to the vehemence of the charge.

  Samuel Johnson

  Vehemence, Resolution, Combat

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.231

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• It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

  Samuel Johnson

  Money, Men, Thinking

  Samuel Johnson (1807). “Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.163

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• There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mind, Tyranny, Thrive

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales”, p.54

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• Misery and shame are nearly allied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Misery, Shame

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.180

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• All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ignorance, Novelty, Wonder

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• Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Laziness, Idle

  Samuel Johnson (1826). “The Rambler (1750-'52) a. the Idler (1758-'60)”

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• Apologies are seldom of any use.

  Samuel Johnson

  Apology, Use

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.261, Princeton University Press

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• Admiration begins where acquaintance ceases

  Samuel Johnson

  Admiration, Acquaintance, Cease

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.128, Yale University Press

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• Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Idlers, Every Man

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.152

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• We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure.

  Samuel Johnson

  Intellectual, Perception, Matter

  'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Milton'

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• Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Thinking, Trouble

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”

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• Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

  Samuel Johnson

  Age, Credit, Form

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.527

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• He that applauds him who does not deserve praise, is endeavoring to deceive the public; he that hisses in malice or sport, is an oppressor and a robber.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sports, Doe, Praise

  Samuel Johnson (1800). “The Idler: With Additional Essays”, p.86

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• Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and far from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Ionia.

  Samuel Johnson

  Philosophy, Thinking, Past

  'A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland' (1775) 'Inch Kenneth'

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• It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be the chief good.

  Samuel Johnson

  Chiefs, Policy, Avarice

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The beauties of Samuel Johnson: maxims and observations. To which are now added, biographical anecdotes of the doctor, his life [&c.].”, p.333

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• You despise a man for avarice; but you do not hate him.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hate, Men, Despise

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• Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorrow, May, Sometimes

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.285

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• The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Greatness, Men, Details

  Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...”, p.260

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• The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Mind, Biographies

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.382

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• The general remedy of those who are uneasy without knowing the cause is change of place.

  Samuel Johnson

  Change, Knowing, Causes

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.12

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• A blaze first pleases and then tires the sight.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sight, Firsts, Tire

  Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British Poets”, p.155

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• All power of fancy over reason is a degree of madness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Degrees, Fancy, Madness

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.390

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• See nations slowly wise, and meanly just, to buried merit raise the tardy bust.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Merit, Buried

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.62, Univ of California Press

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• In all pleasures hope is a considerable part.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Hope, Hopeful

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1807). “Dr. Johnson's table-talk: aphorisms [&c.] selected and arranged from mr. Boswell's life of Johnson”, p.36

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