Samuel Johnson

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.

Men Writing Mind May Thinking Book
Born
September 18, 1709
Died
December 6, 1784
Quotes
1.7K
Rank
#555

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Samuel Johnson quotes (page 75 of 88)

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"The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity. The wits of these happy days have discovered a way to fame, which the dull caution of our laborious ancestors durst never attempt; they cut the knots of sophistry, which it was formerly the business of years to untie, solve difficulties by sudden irradiations of intelligence, and comprehend long processes of argument by immediate intuition."

Cutting Years Long
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"Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown their form or told their use."

Knowledge Mind Arrogance
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"He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans; we may therefore subject them to government."

Government May Revolution
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"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one."

Funny Mistake Humorous
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"Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed."

Sex Real Passion
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"One of the aged greatest miseries is that they cannot easily find a companion able to share the memories of the past."

Memories Past Age
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"That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the character of a scholar; since they cannot but know that every human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of its attainment."

Character Greatness Effort
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"The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal."

Funny Friendship Humor
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"Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with."

Men Law Should
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"The happiness of building lasted but a little while, for though I love to spend, I hate to be cheated; and I soon found, that to build is to be robbed."

Hate Deceit Found
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"Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very lightly uttered, and once uttered are sullenly supported."

Vanity Evil Deceit
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"All imposture weakens confidence and chills benevolence."

Deceit Chill Benevolence
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"Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary talents to lie and deceive."

Lying Deceit Talent
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"As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman."

Greatness Thinking Littles
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"It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest."

Food Feds Ill
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"The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances."

Statistics Poet Individual
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"Memory is the primary and fundamental power, without which there could be no other intellectual operation."

Memories Intellectual Fundamentals
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"But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure; the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites; and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind."

Art Mean Mislead Us
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"Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure."

Pain Curiosity Desire
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