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People Quotes by Samuel Johnson

48 People quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson’s reflections on people point out that wealth can hide poverty and that dullness can spread from one mind to another. He warns against bragging about oneself, saying stories may backfire later. He also praises youthful acquaintances and sees gratitude as a cultivated fruit.

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I am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

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No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.

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The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.

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True enjoyments also keep people from vice.

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Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

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The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

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People in distress never think that you feel enough.

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Sir, we are a nest of singing birds

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Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.

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To a people warlike and indigent, an incursion into a rich country is never hurtful.

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You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful income.

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People may be taken in once, who imagine that an author is greater in private life than other men.

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The people is a very heterogeneous and confused mass of the wealthy and the poor, the wise and the foolish, the good…

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Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.

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There are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.

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People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them.

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People seldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to…

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It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour…

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

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Smoking is a shocking thing - blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the…

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

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Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from…

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Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people. Depend upon it, they are exaggerated. You do not see one man shoot…

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Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them.…

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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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I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In…

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The prosperity of a people is proportionate to the number of hands and minds usefully employed. To the community, sedition is a…

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As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that…

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

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General irregularities are known in time to remedy themselves. By the constitution of ancient Egypt, the priesthood was continually increasing, till at…

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What is said upon a subject is gathered from an hundred people.

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He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dulness in others.

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I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice.

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People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.

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It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.

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Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.

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Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.

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He said that few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forgo the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to…

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When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must…

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“It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not…

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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.