Quotes.gg
Home
Tags
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy
Imprint
Made by
Last Media
Samuel Johnson
Popular Posts
#Tags
The future is purchased by the present.
- Samuel Johnson
#Future
#Present
#Purchased
No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
- Samuel Johnson
#Autumn
#Flowers
#Man
#Scent
#Taste
There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
- Samuel Johnson
#Life
#Nothing
#Passing
#Reason
#Woman
Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
- Samuel Johnson
#Adversity
#Our
#State
#Think
#Us
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
#Everything
#He
#Human
#Man
#Valuable
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
- Samuel Johnson
#Happiness
#Man
#Nothing
#Proud
#Wife
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
#Afraid
#I Am
#Know
#Person
#Speak
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
#Angry
#Confidence
#I Am
#Man
#Me
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
- Samuel Johnson
#Courage
#Honesty
#Long
#Power
#Wealth
You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.
- Samuel Johnson
#Against
#Know
#Politics
#Room
#Walk
The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
- Samuel Johnson
#Dreams
#Man
#Seldom
#Who
#World
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.
- Samuel Johnson
#Being
#Chief
#Known
#Motives
#Secret
A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
- Samuel Johnson
#Aim
#Ambition
#Man
#Wise Man
#Wise
So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
- Samuel Johnson
#Doing
#Everything
#Nothing
#Overcome
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.
- Samuel Johnson
#Book
#Down
#Hard
#Lost
#Paradise
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.
- Samuel Johnson
#Great
#Human
#Man
#Nature
#Virtues
Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.
- Samuel Johnson
#Life
#Long Life
#Long
#Time
#Will
It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.
- Samuel Johnson
#People
#Together
#True
#Two People
#Two
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.
- Samuel Johnson
#Conversation
#Man
#Mean
#Pleasure
#Woman
From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.
- Samuel Johnson
#Alive
#Die
#Life
#Onward
#Ready
Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
- Samuel Johnson
#Advertisement
#Large
#Promise
#Soul
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
- Samuel Johnson
#Curiosity
#Great
#Knowledge
#Leisure
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
- Samuel Johnson
#Collection
#Distribution
#Memory
#Two
The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
- Samuel Johnson
#Arises
#Chief
#Every
#Glory
#People
He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
- Samuel Johnson
#He
#Himself
#Others
#Them
#Will
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
- Samuel Johnson
#Done
#He
#Man
#Might
#Reflection
If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
- Samuel Johnson
#Followed
#Pain
#Pleasure
#Who
#Would
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
#Clear
#More
#Prove
#True
#Two
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
- Samuel Johnson
#Company
#Done
#Planets
#Wonder
#Your
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
- Samuel Johnson
#Conviction
#Human
#Library
#More
#Place
Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.
- Samuel Johnson
#Every
#Indeed
#Means
#Melancholy
#Should
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
- Samuel Johnson
#Again
#Either
#Expect
#Love
#Want
I am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.
- Samuel Johnson
#Friend
#Great
#I Am
#Keep
#People
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
- Samuel Johnson
#Carry
#Fire
#Hold
#Useful
#Your
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
#Know
#Me
#Portrait
#See
#World
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
- Samuel Johnson
#Men
#Over
#Parole
#Quotation
#World
There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.
- Samuel Johnson
#Fruits
#Good
#Men
#Some
#Who
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
#Care
#Hide
#Man
#Poor
#Poverty
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.
- Samuel Johnson
#Man
#More
#Others
#Say
#Wine
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
- Samuel Johnson
#Always
#Bestowed
#Bounty
#Value
#Which
The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
- Samuel Johnson
#Complaint
#Contempt
#Fortune
#More
#Pity
Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
- Samuel Johnson
#Arms
#Happy
#Imagination
#Man
#Would
To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.
- Samuel Johnson
#Free
#Gift
#Mankind
#Name
#Will
There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain.
- Samuel Johnson
#Gratitude
#Pain
#Pleasure
#Revenge
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
- Samuel Johnson
#Awake
#Bed
#Life
#Man
#Morning
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
- Samuel Johnson
#Been
#Calamity
#First
#How
#Remembered
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
- Samuel Johnson
#Animal
#Equality
#Happiness
#Pleasure
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
#Beauty
#Dangerous
#Light
#See
#Truth
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
- Samuel Johnson
#Government
#Happiness
#Live
#Moment
All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
- Samuel Johnson
#Evil
#Great
#Poverty
#Represent
#Show
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
#Gold
#Knowledge
#Man
#Truth
#Wise
So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
- Samuel Johnson
#Men
#People
#Together
#True
#Two People
There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.
- Samuel Johnson
#Age
#Fair
#Power
#Sex
#Things
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
- Samuel Johnson
#Good
#Little
#Man
#Task
#Will
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
- Samuel Johnson
#Believe
#Deceived
#Know
#Never
#Us
Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
- Samuel Johnson
#Man
#Motion
#Nothing
#Up
#Wine
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
- Samuel Johnson
#Expect
#Great
#Labor
#Power
#Would
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
- Samuel Johnson
#Friendship
#Long
#Love Is
#Love
#Short
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
- Samuel Johnson
#Attempt
#Fresh
#Grief
#Only
#Where
That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.
- Samuel Johnson
#Always
#Die
#I Wish
#Remembered
#Wish
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
- Samuel Johnson
#Always
#Eye
#Know
#Never
#Perfection
The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.
- Samuel Johnson
#Any
#Life
#Love
#Necessary
#Vigorous
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
- Samuel Johnson
#Conquer
#Difficulties
#Human
#Strive
The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.
- Samuel Johnson
#Advice
#Commonly
#Wanted
#Welcome
#Which
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
- Samuel Johnson
#Almost
#Great
#Love
#Self
#To Love
Small debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.
- Samuel Johnson
#Danger
#Great
#Loud
#Noise
#Shot
I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
- Samuel Johnson
#Conquered
#Will
All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.
- Samuel Johnson
#Better
#Enjoy
#Fortune
#Own
#Travel
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
- Samuel Johnson
#Fine
#Meet
#Strike
#Think
#Your
Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.
- Samuel Johnson
#Drunk
#Life
#Man
#Nobody
#Social
I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.
- Samuel Johnson
#Day
#Every Day
#Look
#Lost
#New
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.
- Samuel Johnson
#Beef
#Being
#Champagne
#Feeling
#Friendship
#Love
By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.
- Samuel Johnson
#Compliment
#Happy
#Man
#Time
#Wife
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.
- Samuel Johnson
#Difficulties
#Life
#New
#Step
#Success
It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
- Samuel Johnson
#Ability
#Assurance
#Even
#Happens
#Pace
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
- Samuel Johnson
#Between
#Every Man
#Man
#Poor
#Rich
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
- Samuel Johnson
#Good
#Happiness
#Man
#Nothing
#People
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
- Samuel Johnson
#Begins
#Death
#Disease
#Equality
#Which
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
- Samuel Johnson
#Conversation
#Nothing
#Remembered
#Which
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
- Samuel Johnson
#Evidence
#Power
#Sufficient
#Truth
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
#Alive
#Happiness
#Hope
#Long
#Never
The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.
- Samuel Johnson
#Compassion
#Duty
#Good
#Only
#Principles
Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.
- Samuel Johnson
#Battle
#Respect
#Soft
#Striking
#Your
A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
- Samuel Johnson
#Better
#Dinner
#Good
#Man
#Wife
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
- Samuel Johnson
#Cannot
#Life
#Reciprocal
#Society
You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
- Samuel Johnson
#Doing Good
#Doing
#Good
#Money
#Poor
Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.
- Samuel Johnson
#Down
#Man
#Right
#Test
#Truth
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.
- Samuel Johnson
#Cannot
#Distance
#Great
#Reach
#Too Much
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
#Know
#Life
#Money
#More
#Time
Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.
- Samuel Johnson
#Feed
#Me
#Rich
#Smile
#Wise
No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
- Samuel Johnson
#Better
#Money
#Out
#Satisfaction
#Than
Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
- Samuel Johnson
#Man
#Misery
#Never
#Nothing
#Pure
At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
- Samuel Johnson
#Earnest
#Time
I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.
- Samuel Johnson
#Found
#Just
#Kind
#Men
#More
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
- Samuel Johnson
#Always
#Been
#Conscious
#Man
#Who
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
- Samuel Johnson
#Effort
#General
#Pleasure
#Read
#Without
By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.
- Samuel Johnson
#Life
#Seeing
#Seen
#Show
#World
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
- Samuel Johnson
#Anything
#Dinner
#He
#Man
#More
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.
- Samuel Johnson
#Change
#Happy
#Life
#Nothing
#Wish
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
- Samuel Johnson
#Everybody
#He
#Nobody
#Praises
#Who
Load More
Your experience on this site will be improved by allowing cookies.
Allow cookies