Samuel Johnson quotes - page 17

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us. (Samuel Johnson)

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.

Samuel Johnson

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

Samuel Johnson

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Samuel Johnson

When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.

Samuel Johnson

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

Samuel Johnson

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Samuel Johnson

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Samuel Johnson

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

Samuel Johnson

I have found men more kind than I expected, and less just.

Samuel Johnson

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy. (Samuel Johnson)

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

Samuel Johnson

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

Samuel Johnson

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Samuel Johnson

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Samuel Johnson

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

Samuel Johnson

There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman in marriage.

Samuel Johnson

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

Samuel Johnson

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Samuel Johnson

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

Samuel Johnson

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes. (Samuel Johnson)

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

Samuel Johnson

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Samuel Johnson

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

Samuel Johnson

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson - Image

Occupation: English Writer
Born: September 18, 1709
Died: December 13, 1784
Quotes count: 771
Wikipedia: Samuel Johnson

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