Best Samuel Johnson Quotes

Samuel Johnson Quotes About Funny, Life, Love, Knowledge, Patriotism, & Motivational! Best known as Dr Johnson, Samuel Johnson was an English poet, dramatist, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer who made significant contributions to the English language and literature in his many roles. He was a fervent Anglican and a staunch Conservative. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography deems him probably the most renowned man of literature in English history.

Johnson was a student at Pembroke College at the University of Oxford, but he was forced to quit school owing to financial troubles. His teaching career ended, after which he relocated to London, where he started to write for The Gentleman’s Magazine.

‘Life of Mr Richard Savage’ was one of his first writings. Later, he began writing poetry, which earned acclaim. He is most known for his poetry, such as “The Vanity of Human Flesh,” Prologue at the Opening of the Theatre in Drury Lane and “London,” “.” Still, he also wrote many other works, such as “Lives of the Poets,” “Preface to the Plays of William Shakespeare,” and “Prince of Abissinia,” among others. Many people consider him one of the greatest lexicographers in English history, yet one of his most famous works, “A Dictionary of the English Language,” is often overlooked as his most significant contribution to English.

After a series of illnesses, he passed away on December 13, 1784, on the evening and was laid to rest at Westminster Abbey. Following that, he was gradually recognized as having had a long-lasting impact on literary criticism, and even others were motivated to read his quotations.

Best Samuel Johnson Quotes

1. Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.-Samuel Johnson
2. I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.-Samuel Johnson
3. Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.-Samuel Johnson
4. He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.-Samuel Johnson
5. A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.-Samuel Johnson
6. What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.-Samuel Johnson
7. Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.-Samuel Johnson
8. My congratulations to you, sir. 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.-Samuel Johnson
9. Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.-Samuel Johnson
10. I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.-Samuel Johnson
11. Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.-Samuel Johnson
12. There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.-Samuel Johnson
13. Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel.-Samuel Johnson
14. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.-Samuel Johnson
15. The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.-Samuel Johnson
16. 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.-Samuel Johnson
17. Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.-Samuel Johnson
18. It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.-Samuel Johnson
19. Hell is paved with good intentions.-Samuel Johnson
20. You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.-Samuel Johnson
21. 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.-Samuel Johnson
22. It is necessary to hope… for hope itself is happiness.-Samuel Johnson
23. Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?-Samuel Johnson
24. Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it.-Samuel Johnson
25. To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.-Samuel Johnson
26. Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.-Samuel Johnson
27. This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.-Samuel Johnson
28. Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.-Samuel Johnson
29. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.-Samuel Johnson
30. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.-Samuel Johnson