Samuel Johnson

Lexicographer, Essayist, Critic

Samuel Johnson was an 18th-century English writer and lexicographer, known for his influential work 'A Dictionary of the English Language' and his profound insights into human nature.

Born
September 18, 1709
Died
December 6, 1784
Quotes
1.7K
Rank
#555

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"A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke."

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"I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness."

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"If in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion."

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"No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people, and the wife is pleased that she is dressed."

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"A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk."

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"I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am."

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"Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of that confidence which constitutes not only the ease but the existence of society."

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"No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring."

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"Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it."

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"Our aspirations are our possibilities."

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"Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship."

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"A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain."

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"It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."

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"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."

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"No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction."

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"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged."

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"Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel."

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