Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 20

• To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise... Let him take a course of chemistry, or a course of rope-dance, or a course of any thing to which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many things to which it can fly from itself.

  Samuel Johnson

  Happiness, Art, Exercise

  "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D". Book by James Boswell, 1791.

  6 Copy quote

• Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

  Samuel Johnson

  Design, Easy, Difficult

  Samuel Johnson (1803). “The History of Rasselas, Etc. [With a Life of Dr. Johnson.]”, p.71

  8 Copy quote

• It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Unexpected, Common

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.209

  8 Copy quote

• A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

  Samuel Johnson

  Life, Wise, Ambition

  8 Copy quote

• Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

  Samuel Johnson

  Being Yourself, Lexicographer, Criminal Mind

  The Rambler, No. 135, July 02, 1751.

  10 Copy quote

• Round numbers are always false.

  Samuel Johnson

  Science, Numbers, Statistics

  Dr. Samuel Johnson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Johnson (Illustrated)”, p.8602, Delphi Classics

  13 Copy quote

• The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Eye, Sight, Views

  Samuel Johnson (1756). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.214

  6 Copy quote

• Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Opinion, Bounty, Values

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.208, Princeton University Press

  9 Copy quote

• I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

  Samuel Johnson

  Daughter, Art, Son

  A Dictionary of the English Language preface (1755)

  17 Copy quote

• A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.

  Samuel Johnson

  Block, Cutting, Men

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (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.414

  10 Copy quote

• Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Purpose, Progression

  Samuel Johnson (1788). “Letters to and from the Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: To which are Added Some Poems Never Before Printed”, p.334

  5 Copy quote

• The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity.

  Samuel Johnson

  Patience, Generations, Genius

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.237

  7 Copy quote

• I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorry, Communication, Tongue

  In James Boswell 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (1785) 18 September 1773

  62 Copy quote

• There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Bird, Privacy

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.234

  4 Copy quote

• Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.

  Samuel Johnson

  Spring, Flower, Autumn

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.119, Univ of California Press

  6 Copy quote

• Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.

  Samuel Johnson

  Guilt, Despair, Unseen

  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.24

  16 Copy quote

• No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Money, Work

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 5 Apr. 1776)

  8 Copy quote

• Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Poetry, Uniting

  Samuel Johnson (1822). “The Lives of the Most Eminent Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works”, p.120

  8 Copy quote

• There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Envy, Causes, Chance

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.116

  6 Copy quote

• The hour of reformation is always delayed; every delay gives vice another opportunity of fortifying itself by habit.

  Samuel Johnson

  Opportunity, Giving, Vices

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.16

  4 Copy quote

• Love is only one of many passions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Love Is

  'The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes' (1765) preface (Yale ed., p. 63)

  6 Copy quote

• He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Men, Wind

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.254

  7 Copy quote

• Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

  Samuel Johnson

  People, Simplicity, Bears

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.114

  6 Copy quote

• Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.

  Samuel Johnson

  Perseverance, Writing, Effort

  Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.”, p.145

  7 Copy quote

• Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hands, Mind, Influence

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.87

  6 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

James Boswell

Dick Clark

Alexander Pope

Joshua Reynolds

John Milton

Jonathan Swift

Oliver Goldsmith

Edmund Burke