S

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.

“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

All Quotes by Samuel Johnson

“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

“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

“Your manuscript is both good and original but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”

— Samuel Johnson

Good

“No man was ever great by imitation.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

“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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Society

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

— Samuel Johnson

Business

“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

“Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.”

— Samuel Johnson

Power

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

— Samuel Johnson

Money

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.”

— Samuel Johnson

Good

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

— Samuel Johnson

Dreams

“Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.”

— Samuel Johnson

Great

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

— Samuel Johnson

Art

“Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.”

— Samuel Johnson

Death

“The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”

— Samuel Johnson

Future

“Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.”

— Samuel Johnson

Alone

“It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.”

— Samuel Johnson

Truth

“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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Best