Samuel Johnson Quotes
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If misery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice, not to be insulted, because it is, perhaps, itself a punishment adequate to the crime by which it was produced; and the humanity of that man can deserve no panegyric who is capable of reproaching a criminal in the hands of the executioner.
[Misery]
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If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?
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If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.
[Tears]
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If you are idle, be not solitary. If you are solitary, be not idle.
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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.
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Ignorance is a mere privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction.
[Ignorance]
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Ignorance, when voluntary, is criminal, and a man may be properly charged with that evil which he neglected or refused to learn how to prevent.
[Ignorance]
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Impatience of study is the mental disease of the present generation.
[Study]
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In a man's letters his soul lies naked.
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In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.
[Impatience]
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In all pleasure hope is a considerable part.
[Hope]
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In ancient days the most celebrated precept was, "know thyself"; in modern times it has been supplanted by the more fashionable maxim, "Know thy neighbor and everything about him."
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In civilized society external advantages make us more respected. - A man with a good coat on his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. - You may analyze this and say, what is there in it? - But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.
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In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
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In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
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Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
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Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?
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It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
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It is a common error, and the greater and more mischievous for being so common, to believe that repentance best becomes and most concerns dying men. Indeed, what is necessary every hour of our life is necessary in the hour of death too, and as long as one lives he will have need of repentance, and therefore it is necessary in the hour of death too; but he who hath constantly exercised himself in it in his health and vigor, will do it with less pain in his sickness and weakness; and he who hath practiced it all his life, will do it with more ease and less perplexity in the hour of his death.
[Repentance]
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It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
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