Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 65

• The cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but palliative.

  Samuel Johnson

  Misery, Cures, Radical

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.175

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• You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

  Samuel Johnson

  Daughter, Mother, Done

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.5

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• Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Long, Too Much

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.273, Princeton University Press

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• Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hope, Schemes, Merriment

  'The Idler' no. 58 (26 May 1759)

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• There are charms made only for distant admiration.

  Samuel Johnson

  Admiration, Charm, Made

  Samuel Johnson (1795). “The Lives of the English Poets: and a Criticism on Their Works. By Samuel Johnson”, p.85

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• Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Littles, States

  Rasselas ch. 11 (1759)

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• Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

  Samuel Johnson

  Knowledge, Curiosity, Might

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.97

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• I also admit, that there are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits which are not good till they are rotten.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Men, Alcohol

  "The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals".

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• We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Trust, Believe

  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.433

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• I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice.

  Samuel Johnson

  People, Vices, Amusement

  "The Sayings of Doctor Johnson".

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• Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Inspirational, Power, Expectations

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• It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Equality, Egalitarianism

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 7 Apr. 1776)

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• No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hope, Vanity, Expectations

  'The Rambler' no. 106 (23 March 1751)

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• Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Men, Drunk

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 166 (31 March 1772)

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• The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

  Samuel Johnson

  Strong, Compassion, Principles

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.108

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• Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

  Samuel Johnson

  Adversity, Thinking, States

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• Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Fire, Hands

  "Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson".

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• Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Men, Spheres

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.145

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• I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Kind, Found

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• I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

  Samuel Johnson

  Friendship, Positive, Looks

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 374 (November 1784)

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• I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Death, Dying

  Talking of his illness, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 374 (November 1784)

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• He was so generally civil, that nobody thanked him for it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Courtesy, Manners

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.122

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• I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Wedding, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.34

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• In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Writing, Men

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 407 (1775)

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• No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

  Samuel Johnson

  Optimism, Mind, Anticipation

  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.476

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