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.

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”

— Samuel Johnson

Home

All Quotes by Samuel Johnson

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”

— Samuel Johnson

Home

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.”

— Samuel Johnson

Happiness

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

— Samuel Johnson

Nature

“We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.”

— Samuel Johnson

Happiness

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

— Samuel Johnson

Friendship

“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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Wisdom

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

— Samuel Johnson

Best

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

— Samuel Johnson

Morning

“Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.”

— Samuel Johnson

Marriage

“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”

— Samuel Johnson

Imagination

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

— Samuel Johnson

Power

“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

“Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.”

— Samuel Johnson

Knowledge

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

— Samuel Johnson

Society

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

— Samuel Johnson

Music

“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

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

— Samuel Johnson

Money

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

— Samuel Johnson

Truth

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

— Samuel Johnson

Money