Samuel Johnson Quotes About Wife

• He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.

  Samuel Johnson

  Love, Past, Long

  Samuel Johnson (2002). “A Johnson Sampler”, Non Pareil Books

• 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

• Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Men, Wife

• High people, sir, are the best; take a hundred ladies of quality, you'll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing to sacrifice their own pleasures to their children, than a hundred other woman.

  Samuel Johnson

  Mother, Children, Sacrifice

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.239

• All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not. In the same manner, all power, of whatever sort, is of itself desirable. A man would not submit to learn to hem a ruffle, of his wife, or his wife's maid; but if a mere wish could attain it, he would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle.

  Samuel Johnson

  Knowledge, Men, Wife

  Samuel Johnson (1807). “Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.76

• When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her first husband was

  Samuel Johnson

  Jealousy, Husband, Past

• Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Men, Wife

• By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Men, Wife

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.40

• He who would have fine guests, let him have a fine wife.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wife, Guests, Fine

• It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wife, Foolish, Chastity

  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.378

• Being married to those sleepy-souled women is just like playing at cards for nothing: no passion is excited and the time is filled up. I do not, however, envy a fellow one of those honeysuckle wives for my part, as they are but creepers at best and commonly destroy the tree they so tenderly cling about.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Filled Up, Envy

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.257

• Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Wife, Vices

  Samuel Johnson (1798). “Dr. Johnson's Table Talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners; with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Dr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.390

• A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died; it was the triumph of hope over experience.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wife, Gentleman, Unhappy

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.40

• 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

• A good wife is like the ivy which beautifies the building to which it clings, twining its tendrils more lovingly as time converts the ancient edifice into a ruin.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ivy, Wife, Ruins

• No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people, and the wife is pleased that she is dressed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, People, Wife

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.41

• A man of sense and education should meet a suitable companion in a wife. It is a miserable thing when the conversation can only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled or roasted, and probably a dispute about that.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Men, Wife

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1859). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.172

• A small country town is not the place in which one would choose to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Country, Wife, Spy

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