57 Notable Quotations By Samuel Johnson
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.
He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.
A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.
The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
Hell is paved with good intentions.
You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.
To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.
Nothing [...] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.
Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?
Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.
You can never be wise unless you love reading.
The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.
A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.
It is better to live rich than to die rich.
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.
Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.
We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.
The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.
As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence." (Essay on Tea, 1757.)
In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
