Samuel Johnson Quotes and its meanings

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

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.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

The world is seldom what it seems to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

All theory is against freedom of the will all experience for it.

Exercise is labor without weariness.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

All theory is against freedom of the will all experience for it.

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.

Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.

The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love, like being enlivened with champagne.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

The future is purchased by the present.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

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.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

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.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.

The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

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.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you havent courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Courage is the greatest of all the virtues. Because if you havent courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

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.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

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.

Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.

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 a book.

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

To keep your secret is wisdom but to expect others to keep it is folly.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.