Skip to content

Age Quotes by Samuel Johnson

49 Age quotes by Samuel Johnson

All Age quotes Samuel Johnson’s page

Samuel Johnson reflects on how every age brings its own cares, whether from nature or from folly. He notes that criticism has long been valued, yet even the wise can feel the sting of aging and the loss of companions who share past memories. He also warns against chasing empty hopes that promise youth’s promises.

Rate this collection: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.

Image

Golf: A game in which you claim the privileges of age and retain the playthings of youth.

Image

There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.

Image

There are in every age new errors to be rectified and new prejudices to be opposed.

Image

It is a man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grow torpid in old age.

Image

Golf is a game in which you claim the privileges of age, and retain the playthings of childhood.

Image

My diseases are an asthma and a dropsy and, what is less curable, seventy-five.

Image

An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay, And glides in modest innocence away.

Image

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.

Image

As a man advances in life he gets what is better than admiration -judgement to estimate things at their own value.

Image

It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age,…

Image

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

Image

In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without…

Image

When female minds are embittered by age or solitude, their malignity is generally exerted in a rigorous and spiteful superintendence of domestic…

Image

Ladies, stock and tend your hive, Trifle not at thirty-five; For, howe'er we boast and strive, Life declines from thirty-five; He that…

Image

Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the…

Image

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly;…

Image

Though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deserve the censure of being more averse from learning…

Image

To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has…

Image

The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and…

Image

Life of Ages, richly poured, Love of God unspent and free, Flowing in the Prophet's word And the People's liberty! Never was…

Image

But it is evident, that these bursts of universal distress are more dreaded than felt; thousands and ten thousands flourish in youth,…

Image

The love of retirement has in all ages adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated…

Image

The diversion of baiting an author has the sanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of…

Image

Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best recommended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention…

Image

When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have…

Image

He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the…

Image

The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it,…

Image

At length weariness succeeds to labor, and the mind lies at ease in the contemplation of her own attainments without any desire…

Image

In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether…

Image

Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

Image

Age is rarely despised but when it is, contemptible.

Image

Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulosity of age.

Image

I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with…

Image

But grant, the virtues of a temp'rate prime Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime; An age that melts with…

Image

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage, Till pitying Nature signs the last release, And bids afflicted worth retire to peace.

Image

Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry; whether ... learning science or duty from a…

Image

The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that every man who looks before him must resolve to avoid…

Image

To neglect at any time preparation for death is to sleep on our post at a siege; to omit it in old…

Image

Nothing is more common than to find men, whose works are now totally neglected, mentioned with praises by their contemporaries as the…

Image

Other authors on Age

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.