Samuel Johnson: Man

Samuel Johnson was English writer. Explore interesting quotes on man.
Samuel Johnson: 724 quotes26 likes

“Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

Samuel Johnson

September 19, 1777, p. 351, often misquoted as being hanged in the morning.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3

“Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do.”

Samuel Johnson

1778
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)

“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

“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

“Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.”

Samuel Johnson

The Patriot (1774)

“Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.”

Samuel Johnson

1780
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

“The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentleman has with such spirit and decency charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny; but content myself with wishing that I may be one of those whose follies may cease with their youth, and not of that number who are ignorant in spite of experience.”

Samuel Johnson

Pitt's Reply to Walpole, Speech, March 6, 1741. This is the composition of Johnson, founded on some note or statement of the actual speech. Johnson said, "That speech I wrote in a garret, in Exeter Street." Boswell: Life of Johnson, 1741
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?”

Samuel Johnson The Rambler

No. 148 (17 August 1751)
The Rambler (1750–1752)

“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

“In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.”

Samuel Johnson

1775
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)

“A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.”

Samuel Johnson

August 16, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

“A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. Consider, sir; what is the purpose of courts of justice? It is, that every man may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed to try causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he knows to be a lie: he is not to produce what he knows to be a false deed; but he is not to usurp the province of the jury and of the judge, and determine what shall be the effect of evidence — what shall be the result of legal argument.”

Samuel Johnson

August 15, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

“As the Spanish proverb says, "He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him." So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.”

Samuel Johnson

April 17, 1778, p. 396
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him. A man when he gets into a higher sphere, into other habits of life, cannot keep up all his former connections. Then, Sir, those who knew him formerly upon a level with themselves, may think that they ought still to be treated as on a level, which cannot be; and an acquaintance in a former situation may bring out things which it would be very disagreeable to have mentioned before higher company, though, perhaps, everybody knows of them.”

Samuel Johnson

March 28, 1776, p. 296
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?”

Samuel Johnson

Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 345

“No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned … A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.”

Samuel Johnson

August 31 and September 23, 1773
Also quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

“A man will turn over half a library to make one book.”

Samuel Johnson

April 6, 1775
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II

“Catch then, O! catch the transient hour,
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life's a short Summer — man a flower,
He dies — alas! how soon he dies!”

Samuel Johnson

Winter, An Ode. The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1787), p. 355

“There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going."”

Samuel Johnson

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