All Samuel Johnson Quotes
- If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still Business
- Each person's work is always a portrait of himself. Each
- Sir, he [Bolingbroke] was a scoundrel and a coward: a scoundrel for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had not… Beggarly
- The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to… Act
- I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations. Always Sorry
- Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. Bull
- To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be… Confidence
- I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of the earth, and that things are the sons… Apt
- Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of language. Contributes
- He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the… Advance
- We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass. Boundaries
- There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it… Hopeless
- Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both… Both
- He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and… Action
- A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman. Clergyman
- Our minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them. Break
- Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of… Any
- Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity. Aristotle
- As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. Busy
- Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other. Care
- I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness… Form
- Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums. Boaster
- All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by… According
- Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did… Acted
- A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him. Apt