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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 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

Birthday

All Quotes by Samuel Johnson

“There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.”

— Samuel Johnson

Happiness

“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

Change

“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

“Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.”

— Samuel Johnson

Success

“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.”

— Samuel Johnson

Politics

“There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.”

— Samuel Johnson

Happiness

“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”

— Samuel Johnson

Nature

“Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.”

— Samuel Johnson

Power

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

— Samuel Johnson

Equality

“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”

— Samuel Johnson

Art

“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”

— Samuel Johnson

Hope

“The future is purchased by the present.”

— Samuel Johnson

Future

“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

“Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.”

— Samuel Johnson

Music

“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

Courage

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

— Samuel Johnson

Experience

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

— Samuel Johnson

Friendship

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

— Samuel Johnson

Money

“I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.”

— Samuel Johnson

Government

“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