Samuel Johnson Quotes About Resentment

• What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.

  Samuel Johnson

  Revenge, Resentment, Insult

• Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorry, Real, Anger

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume II: 1773-1776”, p.360, Princeton University Press

• The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of reply.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, May, Resentment

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.394

• A patriot is he whose public conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Kindness, Patriotism

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.423

• All discourse of which others cannot partake is not only an irksome usurpation of the time devoted to pleasure and entertainment, but, what never fails to excite resentment, an insolent assertion of superiority, and a triumph over less enlightened understandings. The pedant is, therefore, not only heard with weariness but malignity; and those who conceive themselves insulted by his knowledge never fail to tell with acrimony how injudiciously it was exerted.

  Samuel Johnson

  Understanding, Triumph, Acrimony

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.196

• Resentment is a union of sorrow with malignity; a combination of a passion which all endeavor to avoid with a passion which all concur to detest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Sorrow, Unions

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.124

• 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

• I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Gratitude, Children

  Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.48

• No man is defeated without some resentment which will be continued with obstinacy while he believes himself in the right, and asserted with bitterness, if even to his own conscience he is detected in the wrong.

  Samuel Johnson

  Believe, Men, Bitterness

• Resentment gratifies him who intended an injury, and pains him unjustly who did not intend it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Resentment, Injury

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.247

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