Samuel Johnson
English writer and lexicographer, 1709-1784
99 quotes.
Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
- A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.
- A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.
- A man must carry knowledge with him if he would bring home knowledge.
- All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute, or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.
- As pride is sometimes hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry.
- Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
- Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to further progress.
- Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.
- Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.
- Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
- Example is always more efficacious than precept.
- Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.
- Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
- Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
- Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance; yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigour three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.
- Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.
- He must mingle with the world that desires to be useful.
- He that labours in any great or laudable undertaking, has his fatigues first supported by hope, and afterwards rewarded by joy.
- He that never thinks never can be wise.
- He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor.
- He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
- He that voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces.
- He that voluntarily continues ignorant, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces: as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might justly be imputed the calamities of shipwrecks.
- Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures, of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly.
- Hell is paved with good intentions.
- Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.
- Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, of captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable.
- Hope is necessary in every condition.
- I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
- If a man does not make new acquaintances as he passes through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.
- If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-axe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.
- In life a friend may be often found and lost; but an old friend never can be found, and Nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.
- Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
- It is a great blunder in the pursuit of happiness, not to know when we have got it; that is, not to be content with a reasonable and possible measure of it.
- It is best not to be angry; and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.
- It is necessary to hope, though hope should be always deluded; for hope itself is happiness and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.
- It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance towards it, though we know it can never be reached.
- It is worth a thousand pounds a year to have the habit of looking on the bright side of things.
- Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.