147 Quotes By Samuel Johnson


There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.
Samuel Johnson on age

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
Samuel Johnson on alone

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
Samuel Johnson on alone

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
Samuel Johnson on art

The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Samuel Johnson on art

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.
Samuel Johnson on art

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.
Samuel Johnson on beauty

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

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
Samuel Johnson on birthday

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
Samuel Johnson on business

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.
Samuel Johnson on change

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.
Samuel Johnson on courage

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
Samuel Johnson on courage

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
Samuel Johnson on death

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.
Samuel Johnson on death

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
Samuel Johnson on design

The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.
Samuel Johnson on dreams

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
Samuel Johnson on equality

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
Samuel Johnson on equality

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
Samuel Johnson on equality