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Language Quotes by Samuel Johnson

40 Language quotes by Samuel Johnson

All Language quotes Samuel Johnson’s page

Words are daughters of earth but ideas are sons of heaven, a picture of how language and thought differ. Johnson notes that poetry loses its beauty when translated, while science can move exact. He also says language dresses our thoughts, turning ideas into a parade we can see.

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Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.

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When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

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

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Languages are the pedigree of nations.

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Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet.

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Words are but the signs of ideas.

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A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.

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Language is the dress of thought.

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I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

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Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

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Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of language.

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An Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say.

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Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.

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“APOCOPE (APO'COPE) n.s.[ figure in grammar,when the last letter or syllable of a word is taken away; as, ingeni for ingenii.”

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I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations

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

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Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

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You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which…

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As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate…

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Words become low by the occasions to which they are applied, or the general character of them who use them; and the…

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A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a…

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Language is the dress of thought; and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a…

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Few faults of style, whether real or imaginary, excite the malignity of a more numerous class of readers, than the use of…

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The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of…

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Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on…

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The common people do not accurately adapt their thoughts to objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts;…

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

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Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence…

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“Who will consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since, while it is hastening to publication, some…

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Difference of thoughts will produce difference of language. He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of a larger…

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To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is…

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Poetry cannot be translated; and, therefore, it is the poets that preserve the languages; for we would not be at the trouble…

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To make dictionaries is dull work.

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Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

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Language is the work of man, of a being from whom permanence and stability can not be derived

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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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Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey…

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“If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses…

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When I first collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration…

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I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of the earth, and that things…

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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.