Samuel Johnson Quotes About Food

• One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mistake, Drinking, Food

  "Life of Samuel Johnson". Book by James Boswell. Volume II, p. 659, 1791.

• Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Cucumbers, Vinegar

  In James Boswell 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (1785) 5 October 1773

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

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Men, Wife

  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.205

• A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Thinking, Men

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1786). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: including Boswell's Journal of a tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's diary of A journey into North Wales”, p.390

• Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Healing, Weight Loss

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 467 (5 August 1763)

• I am a hardened and shameless tea drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.

  Samuel Johnson

  Morning, Food, Tea Drinking

  Review in the 'Literary Magazine' vol. 2, no. 13 (1757)

• He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

  Samuel Johnson

  Motivational, Fitness, Food

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 1, p. 467 (5 August 1763)

• The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

  Samuel Johnson

  Love, Friendship, Food

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.175

• Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Food, Cooking

  In William Roberts (ed.) 'Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Mrs Hannah More' (1834) vol. 1, p. 251

• It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Feds, Ill

  On the roast mutton he had been served at an inn, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 284 (3 June 1784)

• Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Food, Hero

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 3, p. 381 (7 April 1779)

• Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Men, Understanding

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.24

• Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Cooking, Preparation

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.125

• This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Men, Dinner

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 31 July 1763)

• A man, doubtful of his dinner, or trembling at a creditor, is not much disposed to abstracted meditation, or remote enquiries.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Men, Meditation

  'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Collins'

• Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Cooking, Beef

  Samuel Johnson (2010). “Journey to the Hebrides: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland & The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.346, Canongate Books

• Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

  Samuel Johnson

  Horse, Food, Oats

  A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

• Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Food, Wine

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.220

• Hunger is never delicate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Cooking, Hunger

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.163

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