“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.”
“Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq
“A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.”
“men do not suspect faults which they do not commit”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
“Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.”
“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.”
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales
“I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.”
“A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.”
“Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Rambler
“No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.”
Source: The Rambler: In Four Volumes
“Learn that the present hour alone is man's.”
Source: Irene: A Tragedy. As it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane. By Mr. Samuel Johnson
“Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour,
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life's a short summer-man a flower;
He dies-alas! how soon he dies!”
Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
“A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations to envy or malevolence, and has always a certain prospect of discovering new reasons for adoring the sovereign author of the universe.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
“Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in any party, resign the use of their own eyes and ears, and resolve to believe nothing that does not favor those whom they profess to follow.”
“In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.”
Source: The Beauties of Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous, Accurately Extracted from the Works of Dr. Samuel Johnson, and Arranged in Alphabetical Order, After the Manner of the Duke de la Roche-Foucault's Maxims
“I have all my life long been lying in bed till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.”
“The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.”
“When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.”
Source: The Rambler
“It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.”
“The certainty that life cannot be long, and the probability that it will be much shorter than nature allows, ought to awaken every man to the active prosecution of whatever he is desirous to perform. It is true, that no diligence can ascertain success; death may intercept the swiftest career; but he who is cut off in the execution of an honest undertaking has at least the honour of falling in his rank, and has fought the battle, though he missed the victory.”
Source: The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...
“More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.”
“Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself”
Source: Miscellaneous and fugitive pieces [chiefly of Johnson, ed. by T. Davies]. By S. Johnson
“It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.”
“Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.”
“No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.”
Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale
“No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.”
“The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.”
Source: The Beauties of Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous
“Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.”
Source: The Rambler
“Be not too hasty to trust or to admire the teachers of morality; they discourse like angels, but they live like men.”
Source: Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings
“Men have solicitude about fame; and the greater share they have of it, the more afraid they are of losing it.”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
“Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary.”
Source: The Adventurer
“A man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.”
Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales
“If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.”
Source: The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
“I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.”
Source: Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc
“In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.”
“There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has given him something peculiar to himself.”
Source: Selected poetry and prose
“God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?”
“Men who cannot deceive others are very often successful at deceiving themselves.”
Source: The Rambler
“In traveling, a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.”
“Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.”
“Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.”
“It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.”
Source: The Rambler
“He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.”
Source: The Idler
“No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.”
Source: Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc
“Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always in our power. We must snatch the present moment, and employ it well, without too much solicitude for the future, and content ourselves with reflecting that our part is performed. He that waits for an opportunity to do much at once, may breathe out his life in idle wishes, and regret, in the last hour, his useless intentions and barren zeal.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
“I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful; for not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use; but there is such a uniformity in the state of man, considered apart from adventitious and separable decorations and disguises, that there is scarce any possibility of good or ill but is common to human kind.”
Source: The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...
“It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his own miseries without knowing that they are common to all the rest of the species; and, therefore, though he will not be less sensible of pain by being told that others are equally tormented, he will at least be freed from the temptation of seeking, by perpetual changes, that ease which is no where to be found, and though his diseases still continue, he escapes the hazard of exasperating it by remedies.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With Murphy's Essay
“The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft intervals of unbended amusement, in which a man shrinks to his natural dimensions, and throws aside the ornaments or disguises which he feels in privacy to be useless incumbrances, and to lose all effect when they become familiar. To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”
Source: The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with his life, and notes on his Lives of the poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In eleven volumes ...
“Every man has frequent grievances which only the solicitude of friendship will discover and remedy, and which would remain for ever unheeded in the mighty heap of human calamity, were it only surveyed by the eye of general benevolence equally attentive to every misery.”
Source: The Rambler: In Four Volumes..
“Faults and defects every work of man must have.”
Source: Paradise lost
