Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 3

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.

men do not suspect faults which they do not commit

A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the publick to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table than when his wife talks Greek.

He that has much to do will do something wrong.

When two Englishmen meet their first talk is of the weather.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

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

The true strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.

What', said he, ' makes the difference between man and all the rest of the animal creation? Every beast that strays beside me has the same corporeal necessities with myself; he is hungry and crops the grass, he is thirsty and drinks the stream, his thirst and hunger are appeased, he is satisfied and sleeps; he rises again and is hungry, he is again fed and is at rest. I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fullness. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I long again to be hungry that I may again quicken my attention. The birds peck the berries or the corn, and fly away to the groves where they sit in seeming happiness on the branches, and waste their lives in tuning one unvaried series of sounds. I likewise can call the lutanist and the singer, but the sounds that pleased me yesterday weary me today, and will grow yet more wearisome tomorrow. I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel myself delighted. Man has surely some latent sense for which this place affords no gratification, or he has some desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before he can be happy.

Marriages would in general be as happy and often more so if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor.

Knowledge is of two kinds we know a subject ourselves or we know where we can find information upon it.

Abstinence is as easy for me as temperance would be difficult.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.

Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire.

Being in a ship is being in a jail with the chance of being drowned.

Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.

Perhaps the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in a few words.We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of action are not known, but because, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may therefore be justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible. [on hearing a famous violinist]

This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

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

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

I like a good hater.

It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

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.

A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man because he has both enjoyments.

Prudence keeps life safe but does not often make it happy.

To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings." Samuel Johnson

Shame arises from the fear of man conscience from the fear of God.

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

Sir a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well: but you are surprised to find it done at all.

A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.

Alas! another instance of the triumph of hope over experience.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks is truth and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.

When speculation has done its worst two and two still make four.

John Wesley's conversation is good but he is never at leisure. He is always obliged to go at a certain hour. This is very disagreeable to a man who loves to fold his legs and have his talk out as I do.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.

As the Spanish proverb says 'He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.' So it is with traveling. A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

When any fit of gloominess or perversion of mind lays hold upon you make it a rule not to publish it by complaints.

I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.

It is the just doom of laziness and a gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquillity.

It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand no doubt we should pity the state of his mind but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first and pity him afterwards.

Pride is seldom delicate: it will please itself with very mean advantages.

To improve the golden moment of opportunity and catch the good that is within our reach is the great art of life.

Your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Men know that women are an overmatch for them and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef.

None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.

The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.