Samuel Johnson Quotes

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

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.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content.

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.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

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

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

I am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

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.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

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.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

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

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Adversity has ever been considered the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself.

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.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

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.

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

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

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.

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.

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.

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

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.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

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

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.