Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 67

• The gratification which affluence of wealth, extent of power, and eminence of reputation confer, must be always, by their own nature, confined to a very small number; and the life of the greater part of mankind must be lost in empty wishes and painful comparisons, were not the balm of philosophy shed upon us, and our discontent at the appearances of unequal distribution soothed and appeased.

  Samuel Johnson

  Philosophy, Small Numbers, Humanity

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.110

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• The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man shrinks to his natural dimensions, and throws aside the ornaments or disguises which he feels in privacy to be useless incumbrances, and to lose all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Ambition, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1787). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with His Life, and Notes on His Lives of the Poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In Eleven Volumes ...”, p.431

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• The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Office, Humanity, Thousand

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler”, p.469

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• Every man has frequent grievances which only the solicitude of friendship will discover and remedy, and which would remain for ever unheeded in the mighty heap of human calamity, were it only surveyed by the eye of general benevolence equally attentive to every misery.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Men, Humanity

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.267

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• Faults and defects every work of man must have.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Humanity, Faults

  John Milton, Elijah Fenton, Samuel Johnson (1821). “Paradise lost”, p.33

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• All envy would be extinguished, if it were universally known that there are none to be envied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Envy, Humanity, Would Be

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson...”, p.73

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• Every class of society has its cant of lamentation, which is understood or regarded by none but themselves; and every part of life has its uneasiness, which those who do not feel them will not commiserate. An event which spreads distraction over half the commercial world, assembles the trading companies in councils and committees, and shakes the nerves of a thousand stockjobbers, is read by the landlord and the farmer with frigid indifference.

  Samuel Johnson

  Class, Humanity, Half

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.200

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• No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender officiousness; and, therefore, no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Thinking, Men

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.384

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• Those whose abilities or knowledge incline them most to deviate from the general round of life are recalled from eccentricity by the laws of their existence.

  Samuel Johnson

  Law, Humanity, Existence

  Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.396

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• Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sunshine, Clouds, Humanity

  Samuel Johnson (1854). “Lives of the British Poets: In Four Volumes”, p.56

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• We are unreasonably desirous to separate the goods of life from those evils which Providence has connected with them, and to catch advantages without paying the price at which they are offered to us. Every man wishes to be rich, but very few have the powers necessary to raise a sudden fortune, either by new discoveries, or by superiority of skill in any necessary employment; and among lower understandings many want the firmness and industry requisite to regular gain and gradual acquisitions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Skills, Discovery

  Samuel Johnson (1824). “Works: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.243

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• The hostility perpetually exercised between one man and another, is caused by the desire of many for that which only few can possess. Every man would be rich, powerful, and famous; yet fame, power, and riches, are only the names of relative conditions, which imply the obscurity, dependence, and poverty of greater numbers.

  Samuel Johnson

  Powerful, Men, Numbers

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.125

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• The power, indeed, of every individual is small, and the consequence of his endeavours imperceptible, in a general prospect of the world. Providence has given no man ability to do much, that something might be left for every man to do. The business of life is carried on by a general co-operation; in which the part of any single man can be no more distinguished, than the effect of a particular drop when the meadows are floated by a summer shower: yet every drop increases the inundation, and every hand adds to the happiness or misery of mankind.

  Samuel Johnson

  Summer, Men, Hands

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.291

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• Men, however distinguished by external accidents or intrinsick qualities, have all the same wants, the same pains, and, as far as the senses are consulted, the same pleasures.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Men, Humanity

  Samuel Johnson (1823). “The works of Samuel Johnson”, p.203

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• The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.

  Samuel Johnson

  Humanity, Universal, Accidents

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The beauties of Samuel Johnson: maxims and observations. To which are now added, biographical anecdotes of the doctor, his life [&c.].”, p.368

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• The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another; to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country.

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Sleep, Humanity

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

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• He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the comparison of imagination with reality; he will look with contempt on his own unimportance, and wonder to what purpose he came into the world; he will repine that he shall leave behind him no evidence of his having been, that he has added nothing to the system of life, but has glided from youth to age among the crowd, without any effort for distinction.

  Samuel Johnson

  Reality, Imagination, Effort

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “Works”, p.355

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• It is commonly supposed that the uniformity of a studious life affords no matter for narration: but the truth is, that of the most studious life a great part passes without study. An author partakes of the common condition of humanity; he is born and married like another man; he has hopes and fears, expectations and disappointments, griefs and joys, and friends and enemies, like a courtier or a statesman; nor can I conceive why his affairs shuld not excite curiosity as much as the whisper of a drawing-room, or the factions of a camp.

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Grief, Drawing

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.453

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• "I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others."

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Lonely, Loneliness

  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.458

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• To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Darkness, Labyrinth

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “The Lives of the Poets: A Selection”, p.422, OUP Oxford

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• The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ambition, Men, Toil

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.91

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• Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may gradually strengthen, till wishes for a particular qualification are improved to hopes of attainment, and hopes of attainment to belief of possession.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Wish, Prejudice

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.323

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• What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Remembered, Written

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• Every one should consider himself as intrusted not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not only for the duties which he neglects, or the crimes that he commits, but for that negligence and irregularity which he may encourage or inculcate. Every man, in whatever station, has, or endeavours to have his followers, admirers, and imitators, and has therefore the influence of his example to watch with care.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Example, Watches

  Samuel Johnson (2003). “Selected Essays”, p.237, Penguin UK

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• But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Men, Excellence

  Samuel Johnson (2009). “The Lives of the Poets: A Selection”, p.396, OUP Oxford

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