Samuel Johnson Quotes

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Samuel Johnson

Profession : Writer

Birth : September 18, 1709

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Samuel Johnson

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

Samuel Johnson

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Samuel Johnson

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

Samuel Johnson

Actions are visible, though motives are secret.

Samuel Johnson

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Samuel Johnson

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson

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

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

Samuel Johnson

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

Samuel Johnson

The future is purchased by the present.

Samuel Johnson

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

Samuel Johnson

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Samuel Johnson

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Samuel Johnson

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

Samuel Johnson

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Samuel Johnson

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

Samuel Johnson

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

Samuel Johnson