Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 55

• Those who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reason and their spirit the power of persisting in their pur

  Samuel Johnson

  Names, Add, Spirit

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.232

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• Time quickly puts an end to artificial and accidental fame

  Samuel Johnson

  Fame, Ends, Artificial

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.141

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• Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Judging, Doubt

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.35

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• In the bottle discontent seeks for comfort, cowardice for courage, and bashfulness for confidence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Confidence, Comfort, Bottles

  Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British Poets”, p.66

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• Confidence is a plant of slow growth; especially in an aged bosom

  Samuel Johnson

  Confidence, Growth, Plant

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• I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Trying, Tumbling

  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.525

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• The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Imagination, Desire

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.344

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• Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy

  Samuel Johnson

  Dresses, Would Be, Employment

  Samuel Johnson (1854). “Lives of the most eminent English poets, with critical observations on their works. With notes by P. Cunningham”, p.55

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• I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, Bishops, Contradicting

  Dr. Samuel Johnson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Johnson (Illustrated)”, p.8562, Delphi Classics

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• I respect Millar, sir: he has raised the price of literature.

  Samuel Johnson

  Literature, Raised

  "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides".

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• Justice is indispensably and universally necessary, and what is necessary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct

  Samuel Johnson

  Justice, Uniforms

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.142

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• A coxcomb is ugly all over with the effectation of a fine gentleman.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ignorance, Gentleman, Ugly

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• From ignorance our comfort flows, the only wretched are the wise

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Ignorance, Comfort

  Samuel Johnson (1805). “A Dictionary of the English Language: In which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals, and Illustrated in Their Different Significations, by Examples from the Best Writers, to which are Prefixed a History of the Language, and an English Grammar”, p.692

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• A patriot is he whose public conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Kindness, Patriotism

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.423

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• How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives

  Samuel Johnson

  Children, Eye, Parent

  Samuel Johnson (1846). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale”, p.85

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• There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a perpetual equipoise, and the mind fluctuates between different purposes without determination.

  Samuel Johnson

  Determination, Focus, Mind

  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.205

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• They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes of expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice as make all their actions fortuitous, destroy the value of their friendship, obstruct the efficacy of their virtues, and set them below the meanest of those who persist in their resolutions, execute what they design, and perform what they have promised.

  Samuel Johnson

  Imagination, Expectations, Focus

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.343

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• The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside

  Samuel Johnson

  Reading, Writing, Criticism

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland: And a Criticism on Their Works”, p.569

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• Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance are the writers who take advantage of present incidents or characters which strongly interest the passions, and engage universal attention. It is not difficult to obtain readers, when we discuss a question which every one is desirous to understand, which is debated in every assembly, and has divided the nation into parties; or when we display the faults or virtues of him whose public conduct has made almost every man his enemy or his friend.

  Samuel Johnson

  Party, Reading, Passion

  Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.379

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• Love has no great influences upon the sum of life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Love, Love Life, Influence

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson: Miscellaneous pieces”, p.107

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• There is always something a woman will prefer to the truth.

  Samuel Johnson

  Women

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• When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Travel, Tired, Men

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• Every government is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the re-establishment of its original constitution.

  Samuel Johnson

  Government, Principles, Firsts

  Samuel Johnson (1792). “The Rambler”, p.354

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• An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty. Men who have practiced tortures on animals without pity, relating them without shame, how can they still hold their heads among human beings?

  Samuel Johnson

  Animal, Men, Shame

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• Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.

  Samuel Johnson

  Common, Mutual, Expected

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume III: 1777-1781”, p.249, Princeton University Press

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