Samuel Johnson Quotes

You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.

We go from anticipation to anticipation, not from satisfaction to satisfaction.

Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived. For example, a madness has seized a person of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually; had the madness turned the opposite way, and the person thought it a crime ever to pray, it might not improbably have continued unobserved.

Men have solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.

To buried merit rise the tardy bust.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

It is observed of gold, by an old epigrammatist, that to have it is to be in fear, and to want it is to be in sorrow.

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

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.

No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.

This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.

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 indifference; but an inhabitant of the remoter parts of the kingdom is immediately distinguished by a kind of dissipated curiosity, a busy endeavour to divide his attention amongst a thousand objects, and a wild confusion of astonishment and alarm.

Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course of life, that its two days of happiness are the first and the last

It is incident to physicians, I am afraid, beyond all other men, to mistake subsequence for consequence.

Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and striking contrariety between the life of an author and his writings... Those whom the appearance of virtue or the evidence of genius has tempted to a nearer knowledge of the writer, in whose performances they may be found, have indeed had frequent reason to repent their curiosity.

Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.

Our senses, our appetite, and our passions are our lawful and faithful guides in things that relate solely to this life.

Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?

Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is to common understandings of little use.

They make a rout about universal liberty, without considering that all that is to be valued, or indeed can be enjoyed by individuals, is private liberty.

The commodiousness of money is indeed great; but there are some advantages which money cannot buy, and which therefore no wise man will by the love of money be tempted to forego.

It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.

The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.

If in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion.

That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily created; every man, in surveying the shops of London, sees numberless instruments and conveniencies, of which, while he did not know them, he never felt the need; and yet, when use has made them familiar, wonders how life could be supported without them. Thus it comes to pass, that our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.

Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

The hour of reformation is always delayed; every delay gives vice another opportunity of fortifying itself by habit.

A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him.

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

He that has once concluded it lawful to resist power, when it wants merit, will soon find a want of merit, to justify his resistance to power.

Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.

Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we eagerly endeavor to supply them with artificial excellence.

There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has given him something peculiar to himself.

By forbearing to do what may innocently be done, we may add hourly new vigor to resolution.

Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.

Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books.

He who would have fine guests, let him have a fine wife.

Truth, such as is necessary to the reputation of life, is always found where it is honestly sought.

Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise.

A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.

The worst evils are those that never arrive.

Laws teach us to know when we commit injury and when we suffer it.

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.

No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.