Nature Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Nature never gives everything at once.

— Samuel Johnson

Nature is a hanging judge

— Samuel Johnson

Man's chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Games are good or bad as to their nature; all may be perverted.

— Samuel Johnson

An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Fate wings, with every wish, the afflictive dart, Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.

— Samuel Johnson

“Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more.”

— Samuel Johnson

Deviation from Nature is deviation from happiness.

— Samuel Johnson

Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which,…

— Samuel Johnson

Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down…

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.

— Samuel Johnson

If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.

— Samuel Johnson

Scarce any man becomes eminently disagreeable but by a departure from his real character, and an attempt at something for which nature…

— Samuel Johnson

Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.

— Samuel Johnson

The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.

— Samuel Johnson

There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree…

— Samuel Johnson

In discussing these exceptions from the course of nature, the first question is, whether the fact be justly stated. That which is…

— Samuel Johnson

Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by…

— Samuel Johnson

The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs,…

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one…

— Samuel Johnson

The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet…

— Samuel Johnson

A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations…

— Samuel Johnson

“And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best: whether…

— Samuel Johnson

There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though…

— Samuel Johnson

The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick…

— Samuel Johnson

“Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind; exhibiting the…

— Samuel Johnson

It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of…

— Samuel Johnson

“It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion…

— Samuel Johnson

When a poet mentions the spring, we know that the zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their…

— Samuel Johnson

All violation of established practice implies in its own nature a rejection of the common opinion, a defiance of common censure, and…

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

An epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art; an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature.

— Samuel Johnson

Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown…

— Samuel Johnson

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

— Samuel Johnson