"The man who feels himself ignorant should, at least, be modest."
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Quote collection
Samuel Johnson quotes (page 60 of 88)
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"I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much."
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"A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one; no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down."
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"Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy; knowledge is not always present."
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"We must consider how very little history there is--I mean real, authentic history. That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true; but all the coloring, all the philosophy, of history is conjecture."
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"All history was at first oral."
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"Yet reason frowns in war's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name; And mortgag'd states their grandsire's wreaths regret, From age to age in everlasting debt; Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey To rust on medals, or on stones decay."
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"The heroes of literary history have been no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved."
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"The majority of a society is the true definition of the public."
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"The present is never a happy state to any human being."
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"Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery; yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable."
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"Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time in the calm amusement of contriving what they never attempt or hope to execute."
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"Instead of rating the man by his performances, we rate too frequently the performances by the man."
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"Pendantry is the unseasonable ostentation of learning. It may be discovered either in the choice of a subject or in the manner d treating it."
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"We consider ourselves as defective in memory, either because we remember less than we desire, or less than we suppose others to remember."
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"The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and as the example of Lord Bacon may show that the highest intellect cannot safely neglect it, a thousand instances every day prove that the humblest may practise it with success."
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"Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health."
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"All to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary arts of contracting expense; for without economy none can be rich, and with it few can be poor."
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"The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature."
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"Sir, there is no end of negative criticism."
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