Samuel Johnson quotes - page 11

I am glad that he thanks God for anything. (Samuel Johnson)
Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding. View quote
Samuel Johnson
It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Towering is the confidence of twenty-one. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed. View quote
Samuel Johnson
But it is evident, that these bursts of universal distress are more dreaded than felt; thousands and ten thousands flourish in youth, and wither in age, without the knowledge of any other than domestic evils, and share the same pleasures and vexa­tions, whether their kings are mild or cruel, whether the armies of their country pursue their enemies or retreat before them. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well but you are surprised to find it done at all. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England. View quote
Samuel Johnson
That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things - the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Pleasure of itself is not a vice. (Samuel Johnson)
Slavery is now no where more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed by the great philosopher of France to begin by doubting of his own existence. In like manner, whoever would complete any arduous and intricate enterprise, should, as soon as his imagination can cool after the first blaze of hope, place before his own eyes every possible embarrassment that may retard or defeat him. He should first question the probability of success, and then endeavour to remove the objections that he has raised. View quote
Samuel Johnson
I refute it thus. View quote
Samuel Johnson
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. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified. View quote
Samuel Johnson
Words are but the signs of ideas. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little. (Samuel Johnson)
The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year. View quote
Samuel Johnson
The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it. View quote
Samuel Johnson
A vow is a snare for sin. View quote
Samuel Johnson
No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had. View quote
Samuel Johnson