All Samuel Johnson Quotes
- You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper,… Anymore
- Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence. Abuse
- It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at… Advantageous
- ...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor. Always Happen
- Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults. All
- The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Good
- To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of… Away One
- No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.... There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us… Abused
- Lectures were once useful; but now when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary. All
- Wine gives great pleasure; and every pleasure is of itself a good. It is a good, unless counterbalanced by evil. Counterbalanced
- He said that few people had intellectual resources sufficient to forgo the pleasures of wine. They could not otherwise contrive how to fill the interval… Contrive
- He who aspires to be a serious wine drinker must drink claret. Aspires
- No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true. Any
- It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be afterwards censured, than it would be to sleep with… Afterwards
- I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences, you are… Alarming
- I know not why any one but a school boy in his declamation would whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by… Any
- The mathematicians are well acquainted with the difference between pure science, which has only to do with ideas, and the application of its laws to… Accidents
- Deviation from Nature is deviation from happiness. Climate Change
- The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another. Fair
- The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England. England
- Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability. Bases
- There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow. Hopeless
- That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while.… All
- Grief is a species of idleness. Grief
- What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company. Ask