All Samuel Johnson Quotes
- Books have always a secret influence on the understanding. Book
- Modern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients. Ancients
- A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity. Curiosity
- The gratification of curiosity rather frees us from uneasiness than confers pleasure; we are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction. Curiosity is the… Confers
- Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately to the relief… Advantage
- Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative… All
- Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure. All
- I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use. It is only… Advancement
- But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite… Appetite
- Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and variety, with cold… Alarm
- Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation. Fundamental
- Network. Anything reticulated or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the intersections. Distance
- The business of the poet, said Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species. Business
- Example is always more efficacious than precept. Efficacious
- All intellectual improvement arises from leisure. All
- It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation. Affluence
- It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest. Bad
- Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new… Alacrity
- As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the… Apt
- That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments.... Calm
- Sleep is a state in which a great part of every life is passed. No animal has yet been discovered, whose existence is not varied… Animal
- Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off. Begins
- Combinations of wickedness would overwhelm the world, by the advantage which licentious principles afford, did not those who have long practised perfidy grow faithless to… Advantage
- Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor. Empires
- What signifies protesting so against flattery when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or false, you know if true, let… Deceit