Samuel Johnson: Man

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

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

No. 163 (8 October 1751)
The Rambler (1750–1752)
Context: Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.

“A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.”

Samuel Johnson

Hope

“He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.”

Samuel Johnson

No. 57 (May 19, 1759)
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.”

Samuel Johnson

The Patriot (1774)
Context: Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.

Love , Hate , Country

“A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace.”

Samuel Johnson

The Patriot (1774)
Context: A man sometimes starts up a patriot, only by disseminating discontent, and propagating reports of secret influence, of dangerous counsels, of violated rights, and encroaching usurpation. This practice is no certain note of patriotism. To instigate the populace with rage beyond the provocation, is to suspend publick happiness, if not to destroy it. He is no lover of his country, that unnecessarily disturbs its peace. Few errours and few faults of government, can justify an appeal to the rabble; who ought not to judge of what they cannot understand, and whose opinions are not propagated by reason, but caught by contagion. The fallaciousness of this note of patriotism is particularly apparent, when the clamour continues after the evil is past.

Secret , Peace , Lovers , Rage

“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.”

Samuel Johnson

October 26, 1769, p. 174
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

“It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in parliament, who is not a patriot.”

Samuel Johnson

The Patriot (1774)
Context: It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in parliament, who is not a patriot. No other man will protect our rights: no other man can merit our confidence.
A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest.

“Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.”

Samuel Johnson

The Tragedy of Irene (1749), Act III, Sc. 2
Context: To-morrow's action! Can that hoary wisdom,
Borne down with years, still doat upon tomorrow!
That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward, and the fool, condemn'd to lose
A useless life in waiting for to-morrow,
To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect
Strange! that this general fraud from day to day
Should fill the world with wretches undetected.
The soldier, labouring through a winter's march,
Still sees to-morrow drest in robes of triumph;
Still to the lover's long-expecting arms
To-morrow brings the visionary bride.
But thou, too old to hear another cheat,
Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.

Learning

“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.

Pain

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”

Samuel Johnson

September 20, 1777, p. 356
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

Life

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

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in the "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections" of Sir John Hawkins (1787-1789) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 6, edited by George Birkbeck Hill
Source: Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II

Reading

“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 one book.”

Samuel Johnson

April 6, 1775
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2

Books , Time , Reading , Parting

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”

Samuel Johnson

July 14, 1763, p. 121
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol 2

Reading

“This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”

Samuel Johnson

28 April 1778, p. 659 http://books.google.com/books?id=yYphdZ0abhUC&q="One+of+the+disadvantages+of+wine+it+makes+a+man+mistake+words+for+thoughts"&pg=PA659#v=onepage
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2

Wine

“Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.”

Samuel Johnson

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

Life , Money , Business , Parting

“If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.”

Samuel Johnson

1755, p. 83
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I

Life , Friendship

“A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.”

Samuel Johnson

1783, p. 500
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
Source: The Life of Johnson, Vol 4