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Samuel Johnson: 724 quotes26 likes

“Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies.”

September 23, 1777, p. 363
A toast made by Johnson, as Boswell states, "when in company with some very grave men at Oxford".
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."”

Samuel Johnson

In response to a line of a tragedy that went 'Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free." June 1784
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness she does not find.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 367

“Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes,
And pause a while from learning to be wise.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail —
Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 157

“A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.”

Samuel Johnson London

Dr. Johnson’s Table Talk (London: 1807), p. 64

“Was there ever yet any thing written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 281

“The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.”

Samuel Johnson The Idler

No. 74 (September 15, 1759)
The Idler (1758–1760)

“Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Line added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village

“Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.”

Samuel Johnson

1781, p. 479
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning.”

Samuel Johnson

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

“Round numbers are always false.”

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in the "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections" of Sir John Hawkins (1787-1789) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 2, edited by George Birkbeck Hill

“Of all the Griefs that harrass the Distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful Jest”

Samuel Johnson

London: A Poem (1738) http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/london2.html, lines 166–167

“Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.”

Samuel Johnson

Boulter's Monument. (Supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson, 1745.)
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world."”

Samuel Johnson

Kearsley, 600
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Johnsoniana

“Abstinence is as easy to me as temperance would be difficult.”

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in Anecdotes of Johnson by Hannah More in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 197, edited by George Birkbeck Hill. More had quoted this remark in a letter to her sister (April 1782)

“Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 1

“As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

No. 79 (18 December 1750)
The Rambler (1750–1752)

“I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 26

“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”

Samuel Johnson

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