Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 23

• Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

  Samuel Johnson

  Marriage, Wedding, Pain

  Rasselas ch. 26 (1759)

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• Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it.

  Samuel Johnson

  Knowledge, Tasks, Way

  Samuel Johnson (2010). “Journey to the Hebrides: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland & The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”, p.14, Canongate Books

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• Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Suffering, Lovers

  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.258

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• It is not possible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That merit which gives greatness and renown diffuses its influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breast; it is placed at a distance from common spectators, and shines like one of the remote stars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat.

  Samuel Johnson

  Stars, Distance, Greatness

  Samuel Johnson, Peter Martin (2009). “Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings”, p.217, Harvard University Press

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• Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Witty, Business

  'The Idler' no. 40 (20 January 1759)

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• Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

  Samuel Johnson

  Music, Humorous, Thinking

  Quoted in The Morning Chronicle, 1816.

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• This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Lord, Wit

  "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations". Book by John Bartlett, 10th ed, Boswell's Life, vol. ii, ch. i, 1919.

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• Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in any party, resign the use of their own eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favor those whom they profess to follow.

  Samuel Johnson

  Party, Believe, Eye

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• It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

  Samuel Johnson

  Money, Men, Thinking

  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.163

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• Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

  Samuel Johnson

  Drinking, Wine, Men

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• There is something in obstinacy which differs from every other passion. Whenever it fails, it never recovers, but either breaks like iron, or crumbles sulkily away, like a fractured arch. Most other passions have their periods of fatigue and rest, their sufferings and their cure; but obstinacy has no resource, and the first wound is mortal.

  Samuel Johnson

  Passion, Iron, Suffering

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• The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Mind, Biographies

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.382

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• The general remedy of those who are uneasy without knowing the cause is change of place.

  Samuel Johnson

  Change, Knowing, Causes

  Samuel Johnson (1793). “The Rambler”, p.12

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• Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Thinking, Trouble

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

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• Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

  Samuel Johnson

  Age, Credit, Form

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1840). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.527

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• He that applauds him who does not deserve praise, is endeavoring to deceive the public; he that hisses in malice or sport, is an oppressor and a robber.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sports, Doe, Praise

  Samuel Johnson (1800). “The Idler: With Additional Essays”, p.86

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• It is surely very narrow policy that supposes money to be the chief good.

  Samuel Johnson

  Chiefs, Policy, Avarice

  Samuel Johnson (1804). “The beauties of Samuel Johnson: maxims and observations. To which are now added, biographical anecdotes of the doctor, his life [&c.].”, p.333

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• You despise a man for avarice; but you do not hate him.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hate, Men, Despise

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• Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorrow, May, Sometimes

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.285

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• The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.

  Samuel Johnson

  Greatness, Men, Details

  Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...”, p.260

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• Apologies are seldom of any use.

  Samuel Johnson

  Apology, Use

  Samuel Johnson (2014). “The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume I: 1731-1772”, p.261, Princeton University Press

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• Admiration begins where acquaintance ceases

  Samuel Johnson

  Admiration, Acquaintance, Cease

  Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.128, Yale University Press

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• Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Idlers, Every Man

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.152

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• We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure.

  Samuel Johnson

  Intellectual, Perception, Matter

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

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• Hunger is never delicate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Food, Cooking, Hunger

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

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