Samuel Johnson: Quotes about life

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

“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

“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

“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

“The only end of writing is to enable the readers better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”

Samuel Johnson London

A Review http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/jenyns.html of Soame Jenyns' A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil, published in the first volume of Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces (London, 1774), p. 23

“The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.”

Samuel Johnson The Idler

No. 39 (January 13, 1759)
The Idler (1758–1760)

“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

“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 have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.”

Samuel Johnson

September 14, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

“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

“Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased.”

Samuel Johnson

September 1, 1777
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.”

Samuel Johnson

May 1776
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III

“Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 11

“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

“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

“The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.”

Samuel Johnson

“Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.”

Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia

Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 29

“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

“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)