Samuel Johnson Quotes About Eyes

• The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Sight, Views

  Samuel Johnson (1756). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.214

• Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in any party, resign the use of their own eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favor those whom they profess to follow.

  Samuel Johnson

  Party, Believe, Eye

• Smoking is a shocking thing - blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, People, Smoking

  Samuel Johnson (2010). “Journey to the Hebrides: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland & The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.198, Canongate Books

• In life's last scene what prodigies surprise,
  Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!
  From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow,
  And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Wise, Eye

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Poems of Dr. Samuel Johnson. To which is Prefixed, a Life of the Author”, p.39

• Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without very accurate inquiry whether it is right. It is sufficient that another is growing great in his own eyes at our expense, and assumes authority over us without our permission; for many would contentedly suffer the consequences of their own mistakes, rather than the insolence of him who triumphs as their deliverer.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mistake, Eye, Vanity

  Samuel Johnson (1824). “The works of Samuel Johnson”, p.99

• Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative faculties. He who easily comprehends all that is before him, and soon exhausts any single subject, is always eager for new inquiries; and in proportion as the intellectual eye takes in a wider prospect, it must be gratified with variety, by more rapid flights and bolder excursions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Eye, Intellectual

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.135

• Bias and impartiality is in the eye of the beholder.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Perspective, Beholder

• It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of nature which are most proper for imitation: greater care is still required in representing life, which is so often discoloured by passion or deformed by wickedness. If the world be promiscuously described, I cannot see of what use it can be to read the account; or why it may not be as safe to turn the eye immediately upon mankind, as upon a mirror which shows all that presents itself without discrimination.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Eye, Passion

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.12, Yale University Press

• Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good in vain which the reader throws away. He only is the master who keeps the mind in pleasing captivity; whose pages are perused with eagerness, and in hope of new pleasure are perused again; and whose conclusion is perceived with an eye of sorrow, such as the traveller casts upon departing day.

  Samuel Johnson

  Book, Writing, Eye

  Samuel Johnson (1854). “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works”, p.375

• Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Learning, Eye

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

• Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Men, Evil

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.124

• Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Art, Philosophy

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

• How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives

  Samuel Johnson

  Children, Eye, Parent

  Samuel Johnson (1846). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale”, p.85

• Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

  Samuel Johnson

  Distance, Eye, Perspective

  Samuel Johnson (1815). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia: A Tale”, p.190

• It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye; that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Perfection, May

  "The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes". Volume III,

• Turn on the prudent
  Ant, thy heedful eyes,
  Observe her labours,
  Sluggard, and be wise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Eye, Laziness

  "The poems of Samuel Johnson".

• How many may a man of diffusive conversation count among his acquaintances, whose lives have been signalized by numberless escapes; who never cross the river but in a storm, or take a journey into the country without more adventures than befel the knights-errant of ancient times in pathless forests or enchanted castles! How many must he know, to whom portents and prodigies are of daily occurrence; and for whom nature is hourly working wonders invisible to every other eye, only to supply them with subjects of conversation?

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Adventure, Eye

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.23

• No man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Men, Likes

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.176

• The balls of sight are so formed, that one man's eyes are spectacles to another, to read his heart with.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Eye, Men

• It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Common, Fixed

• No man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excites our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Men, Littles

• To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue is the great prerogative of innocence--an exemption granted only to invariable virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Tongue, Innocence

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.78

• 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

• Reason will by degrees submit to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Darkness, Degrees

• Among other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked, how little attention his contemporaries can spare from themselves, conceives all eyes turned upon himself, and imagines everyone that approaches him to be an enemy or a follower, an admirer or a spy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Errors, Mind

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.20, Yale University Press

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