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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.

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

— Samuel Johnson

Knowledge

All Quotes by Samuel Johnson

“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

“Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.”

— Samuel Johnson

Marriage

“No man was ever great by imitation.”

— 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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Experience

“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“The future is purchased by the present.”

— Samuel Johnson

Future

“He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.”

— Samuel Johnson

Courage

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

— Samuel Johnson

Society

“I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.”

— Samuel Johnson

Hope

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

— Samuel Johnson

Friendship

“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”

— Samuel Johnson

Trust

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

— Samuel Johnson

Money

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

— Samuel Johnson

Respect

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Hope

“Small debts are like small shot they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon of loud noise, but little danger.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.”

— Samuel Johnson

Food