Samuel Johnson Quotes

Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.

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.

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.

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

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

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

It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.

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

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

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

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.

Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

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

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.

In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.