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

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

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson

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 f...

Samuel Johnson

The future is purchased by the present.

Samuel Johnson

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson

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

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Samuel Johnson

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

Samuel Johnson

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Samuel Johnson

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

Samuel Johnson

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Samuel Johnson

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

Samuel Johnson

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

Samuel Johnson

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Samuel Johnson

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Samuel Johnson

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

Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things to help rid us of our time, which will never return.

Samuel Johnson

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

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