“[S]uch is the delight of mental superiority, that none on whom nature or study have conferred it, would purchase the gifts of fortune by its loss.”

— Samuel Johnson

The Rambler, No. 150 (Sat 24 Aug 1751). http://www.yalejohnson.com/frontend/sda_viewer?n=106855 See also The Yale Book of Quotations, Samuel Johnson 3 (2006)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 26, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "[S]uch is the delight of mental superiority, that none on whom nature or study have conferred it, would purchase the gi…" by Samuel Johnson?

Samuel Johnson 362

English writer 1709–1784

Related quotes

“We are forced to respect the gifts of nature, which study and fortune cannot give.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

“Loss is nothing else but change,and change is Natures delight.”

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Ancient Rome

“Neither the gifts nor the blows of fortune equal those of nature.”

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist

Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 180.

“To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”

William Shakespeare book Much Ado About Nothing

Source: Much Ado About Nothing

“Peace is purchased in the currency of loss.”

Glen Duncan book I, Lucifer

Source: I, Lucifer

“My councils do not need a Friar’s intervention,” said Manfred; “and of all men living is that hoary traitor the only one whom you delight to confer with?”

Horace Walpole book The Castle of Otranto

Section 4
The Castle of Otranto (1764)

“Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators”

John Peckham (1227–1292) Archbishop of Canterbury

Perspectiva communis, translated by, and appearing in the notebooks (C.A.<sub>543r</sub>) of Leonardo da Vinci, as quoted by Martin Kemp, Leonardo Da Vinci: The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man (2006) p. 112.
Context: Among all the studies of natural causes and reasons, light most delights the contemplators; among the great things of mathematics, the certainty of its demonstrations most illustriously elevates the minds of its investigators; perspective must therefore be preferred to all human discourses and disciplines, in the study in which radiant lines are expounded by means of demonstrations and in which the glory is found not only of mathematics, but also physics: it is adorned with the flowers of one and the other.