Samuel Johnson Quotes - Page 53

• Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt himself by telling what is not true.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hurt, Behaviour, Telling The Truth

  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.306

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• Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.

  Samuel Johnson

  Want, Intellect, Prove

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• Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest; Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

  Samuel Johnson

  Grief, Heart, Fate

  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.22

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• Nothing is more common than to find men, whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries as the oracles of their age, and the legislators of science.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Age, Oracles

  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.167

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• London! the needy villain's general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.

  Samuel Johnson

  Home, Fate, Rome

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Park (1811). “The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated with the best editions”, p.12

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• Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury; for, as I said before; it can reach but a very few.

  Samuel Johnson

  Hurt, Race, Luxury

  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.200

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• 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

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• I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the lord chancellor, upon a due consideration of the characters and circumstances, without the parties having any choice in the matter.

  Samuel Johnson

  Party, Believe, Character

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 2, p. 461 (22 March 1776)

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• It is one of the maxims of the civil law, that definitions are hazardous.

  Samuel Johnson

  Law, Definitions, Maxims

  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.344

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• As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Men, World

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• Get together a hundred or two men, however sensible they may be, and you are very likely to have a mob.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Two, Together

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• These papers of the day have uses more adequate to the purposes of common life than more pompous and durable volumes.

  Samuel Johnson

  Purpose, Use, Paper

  Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.215

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• Occupation alone is happiness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Occupation

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• Present opportunities are neglected, and attainable good is slighted, by minds busied in extensive ranges and intent upon future advantages.

  Samuel Johnson

  Opportunity, Mind, Advantage

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

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• Pleasure itself is not a vice

  Samuel Johnson

  Vices, Pleasure

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• A man guilty of poverty easily believes himself suspected.

  Samuel Johnson

  Believe, Men, Poverty

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.158

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• None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falsehood.

  Samuel Johnson

  Praise, Falsehood

  Samuel Johnson (1820). “The Rambler”, p.26

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• The first years of man must make provision for the last.

  Samuel Johnson

  Men, Years, Lasts

  Samuel Johnson (2012). “Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia”, p.45, Simon and Schuster

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• What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Reading, Remembered

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• To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy.

  Samuel Johnson

  Memories, Reality, Attention

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.309

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• He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.

  Samuel Johnson

  Pain, Relaxation, May

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• To be of no Church is dangerous.

  Samuel Johnson

  Religion, Church, Dangerous

  Samuel Johnson (1811). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes”, p.134

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• As every one is pleased with imagining that he knows something not yet commonly divulged, secret history easily gains credit; but it is for the most part believed only while it circulates in whispers, and when once it is openly told, is openly refuted.

  Samuel Johnson

  Secret, Credit, Scandal

  Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1836). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius”, p.224

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• To tell your own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted is always treachery, and treachery for the most part combined with folly.

  Samuel Johnson

  Secret, Guilt, Secrecy

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• The rules that I shall propose concerning secrecy, and from which I think it not safe to deviate without long and exact deliberation, are, never to solicit the knowledge of a secret,--not willingly, nor without many limitations, to accept such confidence when it is offered; when a secret is once admitted, to consider the trust as of a very high nature, important as society and sacred as truth, and therefore not to be violated for any incidental convenience, or slight appearance of contrary fitness.

  Samuel Johnson

  Thinking, Long, Secret

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.87

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