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Samuel Johnson

83 quotes

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) was an English writer and literary critic who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, and the creator of *A Dictionary of the English Language*. Known as "Dr. Johnson," his wit, wisdom, and larger-than-life personality made him one of the most quoted Englishmen of all time.

“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”

— Samuel Johnson

Morning

All Quotes by Samuel Johnson

“Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.”

— Samuel Johnson

Friendship

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.”

— Samuel Johnson

Dreams

“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.”

— Samuel Johnson

Truth

“Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.”

— Samuel Johnson

Respect

“All theory is against freedom of the will all experience for it.”

— Samuel Johnson

Experience

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

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“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.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.”

— Samuel Johnson

Good

“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”

— Samuel Johnson

Wisdom

“No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.”

— Samuel Johnson

Money

“Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.”

— Samuel Johnson

Smile

“A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.”

— Samuel Johnson

Time

“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

Art

“Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.”

— Samuel Johnson

Knowledge

“The future is purchased by the present.”

— Samuel Johnson

Future

“Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.”

— Samuel Johnson

Society

“No man was ever great by imitation.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love, like being enlivened with champagne.”

— Samuel Johnson

Friendship