"Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world."
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
Quote collection
Samuel Johnson quotes (page 62 of 88)
1.7K quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"To go and see one druidical temple is only to see that it is nothing, for there is neither art nor power in it; and seeing one is quite enough."
"More is learned in a public than in a private school, from emulation. There is the collision of mind with mind, or the radiation of many minds pointing to one center."
"What is said upon a subject is gathered from an hundred people."
"In such a government as ours no man is appointed to an office because he is the fittest for it--nor hardly in any other government--because there are so many connections and dependencies to be studied."
"In all political regulations, good cannot be complete, it can only be predominant."
"The commodiousness of money is indeed great; but there are some advantages which money cannot buy, and which therefore no wise man will by the love of money be tempted to forego."
"A woman of fortune being used the handling of money, spends it judiciously; but a woman who gets the command of money for the first time upon her marriage, has such a gust in spending it, that she throws it away with great profusion."
"Misfortunes should always be expected."
"Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time."
"The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public."
"A small country town is not the place in which one would choose to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy."
"A fallible being will fail somewhere."
"Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation."
"A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you."
"Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding can expect only to improve a single science."
"Preserve me from unseasonable and immoderate sleep."
"The stream of Time, which is continually washing the dissoluble fabrics of other poets, passes without injury by the adamant of Shakespeare."
"It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence."
"In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve."