Famous Samuel Johnson Quotes
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Samuel Johnson
No man was ever great by imitation.
Samuel Johnson
A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.
Samuel Johnson
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
Samuel Johnson
Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.
Samuel Johnson
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
Samuel Johnson
You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.
Samuel Johnson
Men are wise in proportion not to their experience but to their capacity for experience.
Samuel Johnson
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
Samuel Johnson
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
Samuel Johnson
The Irish are a fair people - they never speak well of one another.
Samuel Johnson
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson
Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
Samuel Johnson
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
Samuel Johnson
As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly.
Samuel Johnson
Abstinence is as easy to me, as temperance would be difficult.
Samuel Johnson
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one’s self.
Samuel Johnson
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
Samuel Johnson
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson
Self confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Samuel Johnson
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
Samuel Johnson
When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
Samuel Johnson
What is easy is seldom excellent.
Samuel Johnson
I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.
Samuel Johnson
He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
Samuel Johnson
There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it.
Samuel Johnson
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
Samuel Johnson
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Samuel Johnson
Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.
Samuel Johnson
Hope is necessary in every condition.
Samuel Johnson
