Samuel Johnson Quotes About Fate

• Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, roll darkly down the torrent of his fate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ignorance, Fate, Destiny

  Samuel Johnson, “The Vanity Of Human Wishes”

• Fate wings, with every wish, the afflictive dart,
  Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Fate, Wings

  Samuel Johnson (1811). “The Poetical Works of Samuel Johnson: Collated with the Best Editions”, p.18

• Few have abilities so much needed by the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms; and he that will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments must submit to the fate of just sentiment meanly expressed, and be ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fate, Arrogance, World

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.49

• Exercise cannot secure us from that dissolution to which we are decreed; but while the soul and body continue united, it can make the association pleasing, and give probable hopes that they shall be disciplined by an easy separation...to die is the fate of man; but to die with lingering anguish is generally his folly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fate, Exercise, Men

  The Rambler, No 85, January 8, 1751.

• Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Heart, Fate

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, Tobias Smollett, George Gilfillan (1855). “The Poetical Works of Johnson: Parnell, Gray, and Smollett, with Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes”, p.22

• London! the needy villain's general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Fate, Rome

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Park (1811). “The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated with the best editions”, p.12

• There is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect; compared with which reproach, hatred, and opposition are names of happiness; yet this worst, this meanest fate, every one who dares to write has reason to fear.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Fate, Names

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1828). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.128

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