Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 64

• I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Miscarriage, Sound, Apathy

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 297 (1755)

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• The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Reading, Thinking

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.398, Harvard University Press

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• Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Filled Up, Intellectual

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.47

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• A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Excess, Merit, Wealth

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.329

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• The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Real, Satisfaction, Praise

  Samuel Johnson (1833). “The Life of Johnson: with Maxims and Observations: Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous, Accurately Selected from the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Arranged in Alphabetical Order”, p.218

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• Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Success, Miscarriage

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• Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Respect, Giving, Attention

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

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• Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.

  Samuel Johnson

  Respect, Giving, Advantage

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1786). “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.32

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• Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, People, Wave

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• There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.

  Samuel Johnson

  Envy, Toil, Want

  'The Vanity of Human Wishes' (1749) l. 157

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• The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Mind, Principles

  William Shakespeare, Edmond Malone, Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: With Notes Critical, Historical and Explanatory, Selected from the Most Eminent Commentators”, p.18

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• All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Self, Order

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 25 Apr. 1778)

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• No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Genius, Danger

  Samuel Johnson (1824). “Works: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.83

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• Whoever rises above those who once pleased themselves with equality, will have many malevolent gazers at his eminence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Rise Above, Eminence, Superiority

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.62

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• Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wish, Levels, Bears

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 21 July 1763)

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• The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed.

  Samuel Johnson

  History, Design, Littles

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson”, p.398

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• A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.

  Samuel Johnson

  Honesty, Men, People

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 25 Mar. 1776)

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• Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hypocrisy, Burden, Villainy

  Samuel Johnson (1798). “The Rambler: By Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.108

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• Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.

  Samuel Johnson

  Want, Intellect, Prove

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• Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Heart, Fate

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.22

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• Nothing is more common than to find men, whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Age, Oracles

  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.167

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• London! the needy villain's general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Fate, Rome

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Park (1811). “The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated with the best editions”, p.12

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• To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Reality, Attention

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.309

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• He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Relaxation, May

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• To be of no Church is dangerous.

  Samuel Johnson

  Religion, Church, Dangerous

  Samuel Johnson (1811). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes”, p.134

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