“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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing." by Samuel Johnson?
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson362
English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

Marcus Aurelius photo

“Understand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII, 3

Charles Sanders Peirce photo

“Every man is fully satisfied that there is such a thing as truth, or he would not ask any question.”

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist

Vol. V, par. 211
Collected Papers (1931-1958)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Edward Bellamy photo

“No single thing is so important to every man as to have for neighbors intelligent, companionable persons. There is nothing, therefore, which the nation can do for him that will enhance so much his own happiness as to educate his neighbors.”

Edward Bellamy (1850–1898) American author and socialist

Source: Looking Backward, 2000-1887 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25439 (1888), Ch. 21.

Porphyry (philosopher) photo

“Every body is in place; but nothing essentially incorporeal, or any thing of this kind, has any locality.”

Porphyry (philosopher) (233–301) Neoplatonist philosopher

1
Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“What is asked of a man that he may be able to pray for his enemies? To pray for one’s enemies is the hardest thing of all. That is why it exasperates us so much in our present day situation.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Journals and Papers X4A 435
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s

“Nothing may happen without wyrd, for it is present in everything, but wyrd does not make things happen. Wyrd is created at every instant, and so wyrd is the happening.”

Brian Bates (1944) British academic

The Way of the Wyrd : Tales of an Anglo-Saxon Sorcerer (1983)

Isaac Newton photo

“A man may imagine things that are false, but he can only understand things that are true.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

John Bartholomew Gough photo

“It may be a very little thing for you to say to a young man the few words that turn him from the way of ruin, and win him back to life and hope. It may be a very little thing to you; but it is every thing to the young man.”

John Bartholomew Gough (1817–1886) Anglo-American temperance orator

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 561.

Oliver Herford photo

“A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well.”

Oliver Herford (1863–1935) American writer

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, as per Mackay's The Harvest of a Quiet Eye, A Selection of Scientific Quotations (1977), p. 34.
Misattributed

Related topics