Samuel Johnson

The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.

— Samuel Johnson

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

— Samuel Johnson

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.

— Samuel Johnson

Count on it, if a person talks of their misfortune, there is something in it that is not disagreeable to them.

— Samuel Johnson

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

— Samuel Johnson

Whatever you have spend less.

— Samuel Johnson

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

— Samuel Johnson

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.

— Samuel Johnson

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

— Samuel Johnson

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

— Samuel Johnson

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

— Samuel Johnson

He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor.

— Samuel Johnson

Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o clock is a scoundrel.

— Samuel Johnson

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

— Samuel Johnson

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.

— Samuel Johnson

I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original.

— Samuel Johnson

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain.

— Samuel Johnson

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

— Samuel Johnson

Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.

— Samuel Johnson

In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.

— Samuel Johnson

Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

— Samuel Johnson

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

— Samuel Johnson

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

— Samuel Johnson

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

— Samuel Johnson

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

— Samuel Johnson

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

— Samuel Johnson

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

— Samuel Johnson

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety.

— Samuel Johnson

Piety practiced in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence.

— Samuel Johnson

If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind; but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.

— Samuel Johnson

Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.

— Samuel Johnson

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

— Samuel Johnson

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.

— Samuel Johnson

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

— Samuel Johnson

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

— Samuel Johnson

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.

— Samuel Johnson

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

— Samuel Johnson

This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.

— Samuel Johnson

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

— Samuel Johnson

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

— Samuel Johnson

It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy and yet unenvied, to be healthy with physic, secure without a guard, and to obtain from the bounty of nature what the great and wealthy are compelled to procure by the help of art.

— Samuel Johnson

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

— Samuel Johnson

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

— Samuel Johnson

The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain.

— Samuel Johnson

A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

— Samuel Johnson

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.

— Samuel Johnson

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

— Samuel Johnson

Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.

— Samuel Johnson

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.

— Samuel Johnson

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

— Samuel Johnson

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

— Samuel Johnson

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

— Samuel Johnson

Ah! Sir, a boy's being flogged is not so severe as a man's having the hiss of the world against him.

— Samuel Johnson

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

— Samuel Johnson

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

— Samuel Johnson

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.

— Samuel Johnson

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

— Samuel Johnson

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

— Samuel Johnson

If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.

— Samuel Johnson

Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.

— Samuel Johnson

The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.

— Samuel Johnson

Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.

— Samuel Johnson

Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.

— Samuel Johnson

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

— Samuel Johnson

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

— Samuel Johnson

Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.

— Samuel Johnson

What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.

— Samuel Johnson

And then, Sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

It is better to live rich, than to die rich.

— Samuel Johnson

One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.

— Samuel Johnson

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

— Samuel Johnson

There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.

— Samuel Johnson

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

— Samuel Johnson

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

— Samuel Johnson

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

— Samuel Johnson

To keep your secret is wisdom; but to expect others to keep it is folly.

— Samuel Johnson

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

— Samuel Johnson

Security will produce danger.

— Samuel Johnson

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

— Samuel Johnson

Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persuades us that they escape the notice of others.

— Samuel Johnson

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle.

— Samuel Johnson

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.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

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.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Round numbers are always false.

— Samuel Johnson

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.

— Samuel Johnson

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.

— Samuel Johnson

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

— Samuel Johnson

Suspicion is most often useless pain.

— Samuel Johnson

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.

— Samuel Johnson