Samuel Johnson Quotes

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Samuel Johnson

Profession : Writer

Birth : September 18, 1709

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

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

Samuel Johnson

Language is the dress of thought.

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

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Samuel Johnson

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

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

Words are but the signs of ideas.

Samuel Johnson

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Samuel Johnson

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Samuel Johnson

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

Samuel Johnson

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

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

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

Samuel Johnson

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

Samuel Johnson

Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.

Samuel Johnson

He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.

Samuel Johnson

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.

Samuel Johnson

Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.

Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

Samuel Johnson