Samuel Johnson Quotes

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

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

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

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

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.

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

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.

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.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

No man was ever great by imitation.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven’t courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

Agriculture not only gives riches to a nation, but the only riches she can call her own.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see.

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.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

The future is purchased by the present.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.