Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 64

• The commodiousness of money is indeed great; but there are some advantages which money cannot buy, and which therefore no wise man will by the love of money be tempted to forego.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Money, Men

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1838). “Works”, p.644

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• Wheresoe'er I turn my view,
  All is strange, yet nothing new:
  Endless labor all along,
  Endless labor to be wrong:
  Phrase that Time has flung away;
  Uncouth words in disarray,
  Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet,
  Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.

  Samuel Johnson

  Views, Poetry, Phrases

  Tobias George Smollett, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith (1810). “The Poetical Works of Doctors Smollett, Johnson, and Goldsmith”, p.113

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• He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Political, Politics

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1820). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: A New Edition in Twelve Volumes, to which is Prefixed, an Essay on His Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Esq. Containing Rambler vol. 1-3”, p.224

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• In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant.

  Samuel Johnson

  Political, Politics, Regulation

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.125

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• In such a government as ours no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it--nor hardly in any other government--because there are so many connections and dependencies to be studied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Office, Connections

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1888). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”

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• He that has once concluded it lawful to resist power, when it wants merit, will soon find a want of merit, to justify his resistance to power.

  Samuel Johnson

  Power, Want, Resistance

  Samuel Johnson (1812). “Sermons Attributed to Samuel Johnson: And Left for Publication by John Taylor”, p.371

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• Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.

  Samuel Johnson

  Power, Evil, Littles

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.149, Univ of California Press

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• The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Giving, Splendor, Hours

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.358

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• What is said upon a subject is gathered from an hundred people.

  Samuel Johnson

  People, Hundred, Said

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.4

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• Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Injury, Repentance

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.7

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• Leave to Heaven the measure and the choice.

  Samuel Johnson

  Choices, Heaven, Resignation

  'The Vanity of Human Wishes' (1749) l. 351 Page references to James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson are to L. F. Powell's revision of G. B. Hill's edition (1934-50; 1964)

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• That what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted.

  Samuel Johnson

  Resignation

  Samuel Johnson (1846). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale”, p.15

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• Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Luxury, Rudeness, Spite

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• Among other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked, how little attention his contemporaries can spare from themselves, conceives all eyes turned upon himself, and imagines everyone that approaches him to be an enemy or a follower, an admirer or a spy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Errors, Mind

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.20, Yale University Press

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• Ease, a neutral state between pain and pleasure ... if it is not rising into pleasure will be falling towards pain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Fall, Rising

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler”, p.399

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• Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.

  Samuel Johnson

  Judging, Hateful, Common

  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

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• Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Expectations, Ends

  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.426

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• I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Gratitude, Children

  Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.48

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• If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mind, Useless, Valuable

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

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• It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Reading, Writing, People

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 1 May 1783)

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• It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or permanent happiness but by the forbearance of some immediate gratification. This is so evidently true with regard to the whole of our existence that all precepts of theology have no other tendency than to enforce a life of faith; a life regulated not by our senses but by our belief; a life in which pleasures are to be refused for fear of invisible punishments, and calamities sometimes to be sought, and always endured, in hope of rewards that shall be obtained in another state.

  Samuel Johnson

  Punishment, May, Rewards

  Samuel Johnson (1801). “Works: ¬The Rambler”, p.223

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• Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.

  Samuel Johnson

  Needs, Enmity, Provocation

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.20, Yale University Press

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• Merit rather enforces respect than attracts fondness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Merit, Fondness

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.227

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• Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.

  Samuel Johnson

  Growing Up, Flower, Culture

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.321

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• So willing is every man to flatter himself, that the difference between approving laws, and obeying them, is frequently forgotten; he that acknowledges the obligations of morality and pleases his vanity with enforcing them to others, concludes himself zealous in the cause of virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Vanity, Law

  Samuel Johnson (1809). “The Rambler”, p.114

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