Samuel Johnson: Trending quotes (page 15)

“GRUBSTREET — The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.”

Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

History

“[Of Lord Chesterfield] This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!”

Samuel Johnson

1754
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

“Towering is the confidence of twenty-one.”

Samuel Johnson

January 9, 1758
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Confidence

“A lady once asked him how he came to define 'pastern', the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as might be expected, he at once answered, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."”

Samuel Johnson

1755, p. 82
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Horse

“As with my hat upon my head
I walk'd along the Strand,
I there did meet another man
With his hat in his hand.”

Samuel Johnson

George Steevens, 310
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Johnsoniana

“I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 3

Pleasure , Flying , Happiness

“Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.”

Samuel Johnson The Idler

No. 58 (May 26, 1759)
The Idler (1758–1760)

“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

March 21, 1776, p. 287
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

Happiness

“LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.”

Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

“But it is evident, that these bursts of universal distress are more dreaded than felt; thousands and ten thousands flourish in youth, and wither in age, without the knowledge of any other than domestic evils, and share the same pleasures and vexations, whether their kings are mild or cruel, whether the armies of their country pursue their enemies or retreat before them.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 28

Pleasure , Youth , Age , Knowledge

“I [Boswell] was somewhat disappointed in finding that the edition of The English Poets, for which he was to write Prefaces and Lives, was not an undertaking directed by him: but that he was to furnish a Preface and Life to any poet the booksellers pleased. I asked him if he would do this to any dunce's works, if they should ask him.
JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, and say he was a dunce."”

Samuel Johnson

September 14, 1777, p. 341
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

Life , Disappointment

“Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.”

Samuel Johnson

July 31, 1763, p. 132. [Several editions have the variant "hind legs".]
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Dogs

“Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England.”

Samuel Johnson

Kearsley, 606
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Johnsoniana

“By Numbers here from Shame or Censure free,
All Crimes are safe, but hated Poverty.
This, only this, the rigid Law persues,
This, only this, provokes the snarling Muse.”

Samuel Johnson

London: A Poem (1738) http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/london2.html, lines 158–161

Hate , Law

“An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 293

Age

“That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.”

Samuel Johnson book A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland

A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775), Inch Kenneth

Envy

“A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.”

Samuel Johnson

October 5, 1773
Recounted as a common saying of physicians at the time.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

“Officious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.”

Samuel Johnson

Stanza 2
Elegy on the Death of Mr. Robert Levet, A Practiser in Physic (1783)

Sincerity

“He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.”

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

No. 50 (8 September 1750); often misattributed to Joseph Addison
The Rambler (1750–1752)

Life , Parting

“A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.”

Samuel Johnson

1754, p. 72 (n. 4)
Referring to critics
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Horse , Flying