Samuel Johnson Quotes:
Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.
Samuel Johnson
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Wine gives a man nothing… it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
What is easy is seldom excellent.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Words are but the signs of ideas.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
There are charms made only for distant admiration.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
SAMUEL JOHNSON