Quotes by Samuel Johnson

About Samuel Johnson:

Samuel Johnson is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Samuel Johnson

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.

Samuel Johnson

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Samuel Johnson

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

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

Samuel Johnson

No man was ever great by imitation.

Samuel Johnson

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

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

Samuel Johnson

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

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

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

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

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

Samuel Johnson

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson

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

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

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

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

Samuel Johnson

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

Samuel Johnson

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

Samuel Johnson

Author Bio

  • NameSamuel Johnson
  • DescriptionEnglish writer
  • AliasesDr Johnson
  • BornSeptember 18, 1709
  • DiedDecember 13, 1784
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionLexicographer; Linguist; Poet; Literary Historian; Writer; Teacher