SJSamuel Johnson

751 collected words

Samuel Johnson

Life dates: 1709 AD — 1784 AD

Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.

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Quotations and sayings

01c. 1746 AD

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help?

Samuel Johnson / quote

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02c. 1746 AD

I am glad that he thanks God for anything.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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03c. 1746 AD

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.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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04c. 1746 AD

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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05c. 1746 AD

Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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06c. 1746 AD

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road that leads him to England.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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07c. 1746 AD

If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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08c. 1746 AD

Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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09c. 1746 AD

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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10c. 1746 AD

Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an access of stupidity, sir, is not in Nature.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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11c. 1746 AD

Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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12c. 1746 AD

I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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13c. 1746 AD

This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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14c. 1746 AD

A very unclubable man.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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15c. 1746 AD

I do not know, sir, that the fellow is an infidel; but if he be an infidel, he is an infidel as a dog is an infidel; that is to say, he has never thought upon the subject.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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16c. 1746 AD

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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17c. 1746 AD

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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18c. 1746 AD

I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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19c. 1746 AD

A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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20c. 1746 AD

Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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21c. 1746 AD

A man may write at any time if he will set himself doggedly to it.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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22c. 1746 AD

Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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23c. 1746 AD

Was ever poet so trusted before?

Samuel Johnson / quote

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24c. 1746 AD

Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.

Samuel Johnson / quote

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