Samuel Johnson Quotes About Heart

• There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has given him something peculiar to himself.

  Samuel Johnson

  Being Yourself, Believe, Being Single

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.37, Univ of California Press

• How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kings, Heart, Law

  Lines added to Oliver Goldsmith's The Traveller (1764)

• Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Broken Heart, Heartache, Soul

• How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kings, Heart, Law

  Lines added to Oliver Goldsmith's The Traveller (1764)

• Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.

  Samuel Johnson

  Trust, Heart, Tongue

• It is necessary to the success of flattery, that it be accommodated to particular circumstances or characters, and enter the heart on that side where the passions are ready to receive it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Heart, Character

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.1

• When a poet mentions the spring, we know that the zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their verdure, the linnets to warble forth their notes of love, and the flocks and herds to frisk over vales painted with flowers: yet, who is there so insensible of the beauties of nature, so little delighted with the renovation of the world, as not to feel his heart bound at the mention of the spring?

  Samuel Johnson

  Spring, Flower, Heart

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay”, p.97

• Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has neither inclination nor leisure to let tender expressions soften or sink into her heart. The ball, the show, are not the dangerous places: no, 'tis the private friend, the kind consoler, the companion of the easy vacant hour, whose compliance with her opinions can flatter her vanity, and whose conversation can sooth, without ever stretching her mind, that is the lover to be feared: he who buzzes in her ear at court, or at the opera, must be contented to buzz in vain.

  Samuel Johnson

  Girl, Passion, Heart

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.256

• We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Sadness, Lasts

• Without good humour, learning and bravery can only confer that superiority which swells the heart of the lion in the desert, where he roars without reply, and ravages without resistance. Without good humour virtue may awe by its dignity and amaze by its brightness, but must always be viewed at a distance, and will scarcely gain a friend or attract an imitator.

  Samuel Johnson

  Distance, Heart, Bravery

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.102

• When a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Men, Resentment

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.221

• Inquiries into the heart are not for man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Men, Inquiry

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: Cowley. Denham. Milton. Butler. Rochester. Roscommon. Otway. Waller. Pomfret. Dorset. Stepney. J. Phillips. Walsh. Dryden. Smith. Duke. King. Sprat. Halifax. Parnell. Garth. Rowe. Addison. Hughes. Sheffield, duke of Buckinghamshire”, p.248

• The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Thinking, Vanity

  Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.216

• We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Vanity, Fame

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.271

• 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

• When the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and see how it operates upon than whose industry or fortune has obtained it. When we find them oppressed with their own abundance, luxurious without pleasure, idle without ease, impatient and querulous in themselves, and despised or hated by the rest of mankind, we shall soon be convinced that if the real wants of our condition are satisfied, there remains little to be sought with solicitude or desired with eagerness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Real, Heart, Desire

• 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

• Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does it appear that the happiest lot of terrestrial existence can set us above the want of this general blessing; or that life, when the gifts of nature and of fortune are accumulated upon it, would not still be wretched, were it not elevated and delighted by the expectation of some new possession, of some enjoyment yet behind, by which the wish shall at last be satisfied, and the heart filled up to its utmost extent.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Blessing, Filled Up

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous : to which are Now Added, Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Works of Mrs. Piozzi, His Life, Recently Published by Mr. Boswell, and Other Authentic Testimonies : Also His Will, and the Sermon He Wrote for the Late Doctor Dodd”, p.222

• Unless a woman has an amorous heart, she is a dull companion.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Dull, Companion

• Life of Ages, richly poured,
  Love of God unspent and free,
  Flowing in the Prophet's word
  And the People's liberty!
  
  Never was to chosen race
  That unstinted tide confined;
  Thine is every time and place,
  Fountain sweet of heart and mind!

  Samuel Johnson

  Sweet, Heart, Race

  Samuel Johnson (1865). “Hymns of the Spirit”, p.436

• Spring is the season of gaiety, and winter of terror; in spring the heart of tranquility dances to the melody of the groves, and the eye of benevolence sparkles at the sight of happiness and plenty: in winter, compassion melts at universal calamity, and the tear of softness starts at the wailing of hunger and the cries of the creation in distress

  Samuel Johnson

  Spring, Heart, Eye

• It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the readiest method of obtaining her kindness is to praise her beauty.

  Samuel Johnson

  Kindness, Heart, Wish

  Samuel Johnson, Hester Lynch Piozzi, James Boswell (1804). “The beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: consisting of maxims and observations, moral, critical, and miscellaneous: to which are now added biographical anecdotes of the doctor, selected from the works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, recently published by Mr. Boswell, and other authentic testimonies; also his will, and the sermon he wrote for the late Doctor Dodd”, p.135

• Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, swells into a theorist.

  Samuel Johnson

  Heart, Successful, Cold

  William Shakespeare, Alexander Chalmers, George Steevens, Samuel Johnson, Alexander Pope (1805). “Preface”, p.32

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