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Time Quotes by Samuel Johnson

102 Time quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson tells us that each minute matters and we should learn to value the present. He notes that hope can lift the small amount of happiness we have, and that making vows about the future is foolish because we cannot see what will happen. He also reminds readers that love can be expressed without doubt.

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The future is bought with the present.

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The future is purchased by the present.

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Time quickly puts an end to artificial and accidental fame

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A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.

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At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

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Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come.

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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.

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The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a…

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Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no…

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Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from with'ring life away; New forms arise, and diff'rent views engage

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A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to…

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Every man may be observed to have a certain strain of lamentation, some peculiar theme of complaint on which he dwells in…

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One of the aged greatest miseries is that they cannot easily find a companion able to share the memories of the past.

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We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.

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In Shakespeare's plays, the mourner hastening to bury his friend is all the time colliding with the reveller hastening to his wine.

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Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present,…

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Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part…

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As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste.…

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“a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for twenty years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose…

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The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing…

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So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed…

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He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes,…

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The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but little at a time. The widest excursions of the…

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It may be observed in general that the future is purchased by the present. It is not possible to secure distant or…

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Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance are the writers who take advantage of present…

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Life is but short; no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous.…

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“Pleasure, in itself harmless, may become mischievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory, and…

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“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a…

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In a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of…

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It is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. You…

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Forgetfulness is necessary to remembrance. Ideas are retained by renovation of that impression which time is always wearing away,and which new images…

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Time is, of all modes of existence, most obsequious to the imagination.

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The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.

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Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions

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

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Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the…

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With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity.

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Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations.

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Language is the dress of thought; every time you talk your mind is on parade.

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More by Samuel Johnson

The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.

Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms…

You can never be wise unless you love reading.

If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise

All theory is against free will; all experience is for it.

Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it…

The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power.

Words are daughters of earth but ideas are sons of heaven.

“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting…

“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then…

Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt…

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem

The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.