“Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.”

—  Samuel Johnson

1772
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)

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 "Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young." by Samuel Johnson?
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

John Flanagan photo

“The young gentleman is correct," he said.
Halt raised an eyebrow. "He may be correct, and he is undoubtedly young. But he's no gentleman."

~Halt and General Sapristi speaking of Will”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja

“Be kind to thy father, for when thou wert young,
Who loved thee so fondly as he?
He caught the first accents that fell from thy tongue,
And joined in thy innocent glee.”

Margaret Courtney (1822–1862) American poet (1822-1862)

Be Kind

Bernard Malamud photo

“If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace.”

Bernard Malamud (1914–1986) American author

Address at Bennington College (30 October 1984) http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/28/reviews/malamud-reflections.html as published in "Reflections of a Writer: Long Work, Short Life" in The New York Times (20 March 1988); also in Talking Horse : Bernard Malamud on Life and Work (1996) edited by Alan Cheuse and ‎Nicholas Delbanco, p. 35
Context: If I may, I would at this point urge young writers not to be too much concerned with the vagaries of the marketplace. Not everyone can make a first-rate living as a writer, but a writer who is serious and responsible about his work, and life, will probably find a way to earn a decent living, if he or she writes well. A good writer will be strengthened by his good writing at a time, let us say, of the resurgence of ignorance in our culture. I think I have been saying that the writer must never compromise with what is best in him in a world defined as free.

“Wars were not made by young men, he thought, yet they had to fight them.”

Douglas Reeman (1924–2017) British author

A Tradition of Victory, Cap 14 "The Toast is Victory!"

Francis Bacon photo

“A man that is young in years may be old in hours if he have lost no time.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

“No matter how old an individual may be, no matter if he is young or old, if he thinks in accordance with the times he is immortal.”

Nnamdi Azikiwe (1904–1996) First President of Nigeria

Quoted in A Life of Azikiwe by K. A. B. Jones-Quartey (Penguin, 1965), p. 121

Washington Irving photo

“Whenever a man's friends begin to compliment him about looking young, he may be sure that they think he is growing old.”

Washington Irving book Bracebridge Hall

Bracebridge Hall. Bachelors (1822).

John Locke photo

“How much education may reconcile young people to pain and sufference, the examples of Sparta do sufficiently shew; and they who have once brought themselves not to think bodily pain the greatest of evils, or that which they ought to stand most in fear of, have made no small advance toward virtue.”

John Locke book Some Thoughts Concerning Education

Sec. 115
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693)

Irving Kristol photo

“Joining a radical movement when one is young is very much like falling in love when one is young. The girl may turn out to be rotten, but the the experience of love is so valuable it can never be entirely undone by the ultimate disenchantment.”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

"Memoirs of a Trotskyist", New York Times, January 23, 1979.
1970s

Michel De Montaigne photo

“Accustom him to everything, that he may not be a Sir Paris, a carpet-knight, 5 but a sinewy, hardy, and vigorous young man.”

Michel De Montaigne book Essays

Book I, Ch. 15. Of the Education of Children
Essais (1595), Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Related topics