Samuel Johnson Quotes

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.

More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

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.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

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

Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

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

Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

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.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

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

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

You can’t be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who’s for you and who’s against you.