Kidadl SaysA must-read collection of Samuel Johnson quotes about love, friendship, writing, reading, and many more to get you acquainted with English history, including some mournful truths.IntroSamuel Johnson is one of the greatest contributors to the English language and history.Born in the 18th century Samuel Johnson is considered to be one of the greatest entities of his time. In fact, his prophecy is relevant and shows paths of life to millions throughout the centuries.In other terms, Samuel Johnson is an English critic, biographer, essayist, poet, and lexicographer who is looked up to for guidance in all the fields he offered his prophecy in. He is popularly known for his contribution to lexicography which initiated several genres of dictionaries in the English Language.You will find the best collection of Samuel Johnson quotes to quench your thirst for curiosity about English history here.Samuel Johnson Quotes On ReadingHere are some quotes on reading from the famous English writer Samuel Johnson.“What you have read then you will remember; but if you have not a book immediately ready, and the subject molds in your mind, it is a chance if you again have a desire to study it. If a man never has an eager desire for instruction, he should prescribe a task for himself. But it is better if a man reads from immediate inclination.”- ‘Boswell’s Life’.“One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.”- ‘The Idler’, 1758.“Read over your compositions, and where ever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.““I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labor appear to be right.”- 1765, ‘The Plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. I’.Thought-Provoking Samuel Johnson QuotesLove and friendship are essential parts of our life. However, some moments in them brought some complications and we do not know how to react. The guidance you might looking for can be served by the following these thought-provoking Samuel Johnson quotes.“Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other’s failings because they are his own.”- ‘The Works Of Samuel Johnson’, (ed. 1801).“When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed forever.”- ‘Life Of Johnson’ (ed. 1799).“A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself. Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.““It is strange how many things will happen to intercept every pleasure, though it [be] only that of two friends meeting together.”- ‘Boswell’s Life Of Johnson’.“To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.”- Page no. 59, ‘The Rambler’.“Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.”- Page no. 23, ‘The Rambler’.“Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.”“There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.” “My dear friend, clear your mind of can’t.”“The unhappy failure of pious resolves” when he is reported saying, “Sir, hell is paved with good intentions.”- ‘Life of Johnson’, James Boswell.“Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions. What we have missed long enough to want it, we value more when it is regained; but that which has been lost till it is forgotten will be found at last with little gladness, and with still less if a substitute has supplied the place.““The road to hell is paved with good intentions,““An old friend never can be found, and nature has provided that he cannot easily be lost.”- ‘Letters To And From The Late Samuel Johnson, LL.D.’ (ed. 1788)“I m a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed.”- ‘Boswell’s Life Of Johnson’, (ed. 1799).“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.”“The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.““The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.““Officious, innocent, sincere, Of every friendless name the friend.““If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.”- ‘The Life Of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.’, James Boswell, 1791.“To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.““The friendship which is to be practiced or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other.““Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship.““To those who have lived long together, everything heard and everything seen recalls some pleasure communicated, some benefit conferred, some petty quarrel or some slight endearment. Esteem of great powers, or amiable qualities newly discovered may embroider a day or a week, but a friendship of twenty years is interwoven with the texture of life.“Samuel Johnson Famous QuotesHere are some popular Samuel Johnson quotes for you to remember.“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.““Among the lower classes of mankind there will be found very little desire of any other knowledge than what may contribute immediately to the relief of some pressing uneasiness, or the attainment of some near advantage."- ‘The Rambler’, 1750.“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”- ‘Letters on The Study And Use Of Ancient And Modern History’, 1806“Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.”- ‘Letters Of The Late Lord Lyttleton’.“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.““Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?““There are charms made only for distance admiration."“The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.”- ‘Lives Of the English Poets: Walter Milton Cowley’, Samuel Johnson.“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am."“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”“Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.” - ‘The Vanity Of Human Wishes’.“Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.”“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.”- ‘The Life Of Samuel Johnson’, James Boswell.“Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.““I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.““Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.““It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.““The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove."“There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.”- ‘Taxation No Tyranny’.“He that would pass the latter part of life with honor and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.”- ‘The Rambler’, September 8, 1750, Page no. 50.“Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.”- ‘Prayers And Meditations’, 1785, Page No. 1770.“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”- ‘Anecdotes Of The Revd. Percival Stockdale’, 1809.“Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted; let me serve Thee with active zeal, humbled confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge.”- page no. 613, ‘Dictionary Of Burning Words Of Brilliant Writers’, 1895.“A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.”- Page no. 64., ‘Dr. Johnson’s Table Talk, London’, 1807"It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.”- Page no. 67. ‘Dr. Johnson’s Table Talk, London’, 1807"Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain, and expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment."-Samuel Johnson, June 8, 1762.“Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has repressed. It only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.”- ‘Boswell’s Life Of Johnson’.“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble."“The essence of poetry is invention; such invention as, by producing something unexpected, surprises and delights.”- ‘The Lives Of The English Poets’.“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.”“It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which they can influence, with more importunity of solicitation to adopt their opinions. In proportion as they doubt the truth of their own doctrines, they are desirous to gain the attestation of another understanding: and industriously labour to win a proselyte, and eagerly catch at the slightest pretence to dignify their sect with a distinguished name.““It is wonderful that five thousand years have now elapsed since the creation of the world, and still it is undecided whether or not there has ever been an instance of the spirit of any person appearing after death. All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.”- ‘The Life Of Samuel Johnson’.“If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.”- ‘The Prince Of Abissinia’, The Fourth Edition, 1775.“A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.”- ‘The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia’.“Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance; yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigor three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe.”- ‘The History Of Rasselas, Prince Of Abissinia’, 1759"Too much vigor in the beginning of an undertaking often intercepts and prevents the steadiness and perseverance always necessary in the conduct of a complicated scheme."- ‘The Rambler’, 1750"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.““We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over. So in a series of acts of kindness there is, at last, one which makes the heart run over.”- ‘Boswell’s Life Of Johnson’.“Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen. It is assuming a superiority, and it is particularly wrong to question a man concerning himself. There may be parts of his former life he may not wish to be made known to other persons, or even brought to his own recollection.”- ‘The Life Of Samuel Johnson’, James Boswell.“I know not why any one but a schoolboy in his declamation should whine over the Commonwealth of Rome, which grew great only by the misery of the rest of mankind. The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another.”- ‘The Works Of Samuel Johnson’”[]……Life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.““Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.““There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern."“The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.”“In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it; for no species of falsehood is more frequent than flattery, to which the coward is betrayed by fear, the dependent by interest, and the friend by tenderness…”“One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.““New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new. " Samuel Johnson Quotes On ShakespeareSamuel Johnson had some high praise for Shakespeare, some of which are highlighted in these quotes.“William Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life.”- ‘The Preface To Shakespeare’, 1917“Nothing can please many, and please long, but just representations of general nature”-Referring to Shakespeare’s ability to provide a just representation of people’s general nature, ‘The Preface to Shakespeare’, 1917.“His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated..”-Praising Shakespeare’s writing of characters, ‘The Preface to Shakespeare’, 1917.“Shakespeare has no heroes; his scenes are occupied by men.”- Elaborating how Shakespeare’s heroes are not extraordinary beings but ordinary people with heroic abilities, ‘The Preface to Shakespeare’, 1917.“His drama is the mirror of life.”-‘The Preface To Shakespeare’, 1917.“Shakespeare’s plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind..”-‘The Preface To Shakespeare’, 1917.“He sacrifices virtue to convenience..”-‘The Preface To Shakespeare’, 1917.“Such violations of rules mere positive become the comprehensive genius of Shakespeare”-On Shakespeare’s ability to reverse the paradigm in his writing, ‘The Preface to Shakespeare’, 1917.Samuel Johnson Quotes About Writing And LanguageIf you are a literature lover then you are going to enjoy the best collection of writing and language quotes in the following. These quotes are not just aimed at writing but will help you to enjoy reading.“A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.”- ‘The Journal Of A Tour To The Hebrides’.“The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.““I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.““Every man is more speedily instructed by his own language than by any other; before we search the rest of the world for teachers, let us try whether we may not spare our trouble by finding them at home.““Language is the dress of thought, and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rustics or mechanics, so the most heroic sentiments will lose their efficacy, and the most splendid ideas drop their magnificence.”- ‘Samuel Johnson’s Life Of Cowley’.“Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.”- ‘The Life Of Milton - Lives Of The English Poets’.“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”“Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas: I wish, however, that the instrument might be less apt to decay, and that signs might be permanent, like the things they denote."“Language is the dress of thought.”“Among those who have endeavored to promote learning and rectify judgment, it has long been customary to complain of the abuse of words, which are often admitted to signify things so different that, instead of assisting the understanding as vehicles of knowledge, they produce error, dissension, and perplexity, because what is affirmed in one sense is received in another.”- ‘The Rambler’, 1750.“Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.”“People have now-a-days got a strange opinion that everything should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chemistry by lectures:– You might teach the making of shoes by lectures!”- ‘Boswell’s Life’.
A must-read collection of Samuel Johnson quotes about love, friendship, writing, reading, and many more to get you acquainted with English history, including some mournful truths.
