Samuel Johnson: Trending quotes

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“PENSION — An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.”

Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

“A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.”

Samuel Johnson

1783, p. 501
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“Wine makes a man more pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.”

Samuel Johnson

April 28, 1778, p. 404
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow; but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.”

Samuel Johnson

Letter to Hester Thrale (12 April 1781) http://books.google.com/books?id=184WAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA736

“The world is not yet exhausted: let me see something to-morrow which I never saw before.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 47

“There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.”

Samuel Johnson

1775, p. 273
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

“The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.”

Samuel Johnson

1780
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“God bless you, my dear!”

Samuel Johnson

December 13, 1784 (Last words)
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”

Samuel Johnson

July 6, 1763, p. 120
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

“CLUB — An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.”

Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

“How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Lines added to Goldsmith's Traveller

“Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.”

Samuel Johnson

February 7, 1754 (Letter to Lord Chesterfield)
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

“OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

Samuel Johnson book A Dictionary of the English Language

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

Samuel Johnson

The Life of Pope http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5101 <br class="br">Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)

“The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.”

Samuel Johnson

The Life of Gray
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)

“There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 266

“Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.”

Samuel Johnson

The Life of Milton
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)

“When learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose;
Each change of many-colored life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toiled after him in vain.”

Samuel Johnson

Prologue at the Opening of Drury Lane Theatre (1747)

“I [Boswell] happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place.
JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here."”

Samuel Johnson

August 6, 1763, p. 134
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

“A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
No dangers fright him, and no labors tire.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 193