Quotes by Johnson, Samuel

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

Johnson, Samuel on skepticism   

"If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written."

Johnson, Samuel on slander   

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"Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad."

Johnson, Samuel on solitude
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"If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle."

Johnson, Samuel on solitude
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"Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion."

Johnson, Samuel on sorrow   

"Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it."

Johnson, Samuel on sorrow   

"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 cannot be loved."

Johnson, Samuel on sorrow   

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"When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four."

Johnson, Samuel on speculation   

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"Round numbers are always false."

Johnson, Samuel on statistics   

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"It was his peculiar happiness that he scarcely ever found a stranger whom he did not leave a friend; but it must likewise be added, that he had not often a friend long without obliging him to become a stranger."

Johnson, Samuel on anger   

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"The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied."

Johnson, Samuel on students   

"The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning."

Johnson, Samuel on bed   

"I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain."

Johnson, Samuel on bed   

"Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy."

Johnson, Samuel on belief
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"Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him."

Johnson, Samuel on biography   

"The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape."

Johnson, Samuel on birthdays   

"What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure."

Johnson, Samuel on books - reading   

"Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all."

Johnson, Samuel on books - reading   

"A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good."

Johnson, Samuel on books - reading
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"Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both."

Johnson, Samuel on bores and boredom   

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"Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return."

Johnson, Samuel on bores and boredom   

"Every other enjoyment malice may destroy; every other panegyric envy may withhold; but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums."

Johnson, Samuel on bragging   

"Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity."

Johnson, Samuel on calamity   

"I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates society."

Johnson, Samuel on cards   

"No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true."

Johnson, Samuel on censorship   

"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 doors unbolted, because by our laws we can hang a thief."

Johnson, Samuel on censorship   

"Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before."

Johnson, Samuel on change
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"He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything."

Johnson, Samuel on charity   

"You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity."

Johnson, Samuel on charity   

"There are charms made only for distance admiration."

Johnson, Samuel on charm   

"He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt."

Johnson, Samuel on suspicion   

"Suspicion is most often useless pain."

Johnson, Samuel on suspicion   

"Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence."

Johnson, Samuel on tea   

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"We love to overlook the boundaries which we do not wish to pass."

Johnson, Samuel on temptation
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"The drama's laws, the drama's patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live."

Johnson, Samuel on theater   

"There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible."

Johnson, Samuel on things and little things   

"When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped."

Johnson, Samuel on tragedies   

"He that travels in theory has no inconveniences; he has shade and sunshine at his disposal, and wherever he alights finds tables of plenty and looks of gaiety. These ideas are indulged till the day of departure arrives, the chaise is called, and the progress of happiness begins. A few miles teach him the fallacies of imagination. The road is dusty, the air is sultry, the horses are sluggish. He longs for the time of dinner that he may eat and rest. The inn is crowded, his orders are neglected, and nothing remains but that he devour in haste what the cook has spoiled, and drive on in quest of better entertainment. He finds at night a more commodious house, but the best is always worse than he expected."

Johnson, Samuel on travel   

"In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

Johnson, Samuel on travel   

"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."

Johnson, Samuel on travel