Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 37

• None of the projects or designs which exercise the mind of man are equally subject to obstructions and disappointments with the pursuit of fame.

  Samuel Johnson

  Disappointment, Exercise, Design

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.217

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• Wheresoe'er I turn my view,
  All is strange, yet nothing new:
  Endless labor all along,
  Endless labor to be wrong:
  Phrase that Time has flung away;
  Uncouth words in disarray,
  Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet,
  Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.

  Samuel Johnson

  Views, Poetry, Phrases

  Tobias George Smollett, Samuel Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith (1810). “The Poetical Works of Doctors Smollett, Johnson, and Goldsmith”, p.113

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• He that shall peruse the political pamphlets of any past reign will wonder why they were so eagerly read, or so loudly praised.

  Samuel Johnson

  Past, Political, Politics

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1820). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: A New Edition in Twelve Volumes, to which is Prefixed, an Essay on His Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Esq. Containing Rambler vol. 1-3”, p.224

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• In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant.

  Samuel Johnson

  Political, Politics, Regulation

  Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.125

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• In such a government as ours no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it--nor hardly in any other government--because there are so many connections and dependencies to be studied.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Office, Connections

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1888). “The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Together with A Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides”

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• He that has once concluded it lawful to resist power, when it wants merit, will soon find a want of merit, to justify his resistance to power.

  Samuel Johnson

  Power, Want, Resistance

  Samuel Johnson (1812). “Sermons Attributed to Samuel Johnson: And Left for Publication by John Taylor”, p.371

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• Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil.

  Samuel Johnson

  Power, Evil, Littles

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.149, Univ of California Press

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• The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate.

  Samuel Johnson

  Giving, Splendor, Hours

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.358

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• What is said upon a subject is gathered from an hundred people.

  Samuel Johnson

  People, Hundred, Said

  Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.4

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• Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Injury, Repentance

  Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.7

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• Leave to Heaven the measure and the choice.

  Samuel Johnson

  Choices, Heaven, Resignation

  'The Vanity of Human Wishes' (1749) l. 351 Page references to James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson are to L. F. Powell's revision of G. B. Hill's edition (1934-50; 1964)

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• That what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted.

  Samuel Johnson

  Resignation

  Samuel Johnson (1846). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale”, p.15

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• Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.

  Samuel Johnson

  Luxury, Rudeness, Spite

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• More is learned in a public than in a private school, from emulation. There is the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds pointing to one center.

  Samuel Johnson

  School, Mind, Radiation

  James Boswell, Alexander Napier, Richard Duppa, Robina Napier, Samuel Johnson (1884). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D. Together with the journal of a tour to the Hebrides: James Boswell”

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• To go and see one druidical temple is only to see that it is nothing, for there is neither art nor power in it; and seeing one is quite enough.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Temples, Enough

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1786). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: including Boswell's Journal of a tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's diary of A journey into North Wales”, p.150

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• Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Quality, Degrees

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.135

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• Self-love is a busy prompter.

  Samuel Johnson

  Love Is, Self, Self Love

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper: Waller, Butler, Rochester, Roscommon, Otway, Pomfret, Dorset, Stepney, J. Philips, Walsh, Dryden”, p.469

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• It may be no less dangerous to claim, on certain occasions, too little than too much. There is something captivating in spirit and intrepidity, to which we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can we often yield as to a resistless power; nor can he reasonably expect the confidence of others who too apparently distrusts himself.

  Samuel Johnson

  Yield, May, Littles

  Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.1

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• Corneille is to Shakespeare as a clipped hedge is to a forest.

  Samuel Johnson

  Forests

  In Hester Lynch Piozzi 'Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson' (1786) p. 59

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• In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve.

  Samuel Johnson

  Scene, Comic, Produce

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• It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.

  Samuel Johnson

  May, Said, Prudence

  William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens (1824). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare”, p.25

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• The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare.

  Samuel Johnson

  Fabric, Poet, Injury

  William Shakespeare, Isaac Reed, Samuel Johnson, George Steevens, Charlotte L. Fish (1817). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakespeare: In Ten Volumes ; with the Corrections and Illustrations of Dr. Johnson, G. Steevens, and Others”, p.31

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• Preserve me from unseasonable and immoderate sleep.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sleep, Preserves

  Samuel Johnson (1836). “Prayers and Meditations, composed by S. Johnson ... and published from his manuscripts, by George Strahan ... The fourth edition”, p.49

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• Probably no one will ever know whether it is better to wear a nightcap or not.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sleep, Nightcap, Knows

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• The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Solitude, Miserable

  Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.85

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