Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 47

• Few have abilities so much needed by the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms; and he that will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments must submit to the fate of just sentiment meanly expressed, and be ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fate, Arrogance, World

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.49

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• All violation of established practice implies in its own nature a rejection of the common opinion, a defiance of common censure, and an appeal from general laws to private judgment: he, therefore, who differs form others without apparent advantage, ought not to be angry if his arrogance is punished with ridicule; if those whose example he superciliously overlooks, point him out to derision, and hoot him back again into the common road.

  Samuel Johnson

  Law, Practice, Rejection

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson...”, p.178

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• The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication, as the first actions of a new monarch agitate nations with hope and fear.

  Samuel Johnson

  Retirement, Theatre, Firsts

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson [ed. by F.P. Walesby].”, p.222

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• Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow, - attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.

  Samuel Johnson

  Historical, Listening, Promise

  'Rasselas' (1759) ch. 1

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• Many falsehoods are passing into uncontradicted history.

  Samuel Johnson

  Historical, Passing, Passings

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume III: 1777-1781”, p.200, Princeton University Press

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• If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Funny, Wall

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.270, Harvard University Press

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• None but those who have learned the art of subjecting their senses as well as reason to hypothetical systems can be persuaded by the most specious rhetorician that the lots of life are equal; yet it cannot be denied that every one has his peculiar pleasures and vexations, that external accidents operate variously upon different minds, and that no man can exactly judge from his own sensations what another would feel in the same circumstances.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Men, Judging

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Hester Mulson Chapone, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1785). “The Rambler”, p.292

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• There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in a time of general venality, to lead a life of virtue and reason in the midst of sensualists, is a proof of a mind intent on nobler things than the praise or blame of men, of a soul fixed in the contemplation of the highest good, and superiour to the tyranny of custom and example.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Soul, Individuality

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.287

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• To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mind, Religion, Church

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.239

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• Here lies our good Edmund, whose genius was such,
  We scarcely can praise it or blame it too much;
  Who, born for the Universe, narrowed his mind,
  And to party gave up what was meant for mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Lying, Party, Mind

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• If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pretty Woman, Risk, Driving

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3, p. 162 (19 September 1777)

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• The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the thirst of the soul; it inflames and torments us, and makes us taste every thing with joy, however otherwise insipid, by which it may be quenched.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ignorance, Joy, Soul

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1836). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius”, p.163

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• Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately to the relief of some pressing uneasiness, or the attainment of some near advantage.

  Samuel Johnson

  Class, Curiosity, Desire

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.206

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• Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative faculties. He who easily comprehends all that is before him, and soon exhausts any single subject, is always eager for new inquiries; and in proportion as the intellectual eye takes in a wider prospect, it must be gratified with variety, by more rapid flights and bolder excursions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Eye, Intellectual

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.135

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• But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure; the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites; and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Mean, Mislead Us

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1792). “The rambler”, p.233

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• Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and variety, with cold indifference; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of the kingdom is immediately distinguished by a kind of dissipated curiosity, a busy endeavour to divide his attention amongst a thousand objects, and a wild confusion of astonishment and alarm.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Cities, Confusion

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.41

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• Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Intellectual, Fundamentals

  Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.78, Harvard University Press

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• Network. Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections.

  Samuel Johnson

  Distance, Statistics, Internet

  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

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• The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances.

  Samuel Johnson

  Statistics, Poet, Individual

  "Selected Poetry and Prose".

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• It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Money, Men, Exaltation

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.67

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• It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Feds, Ill

  On the roast mutton he had been served at an inn, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 284 (3 June 1784)

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• Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Art, Novelty

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.195

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• As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.

  Samuel Johnson

  Greatness, Thinking, Littles

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.96

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• Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

  Samuel Johnson

  Evil, Secret, Vices

  Samuel Johnson (1948). “The wisdom of Dr. Johnson: being comments on life and moral precepts chosen from his writings”

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• Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.

  Samuel Johnson

  Focus, Gold, Empires

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