“To me - the choice of life is become less important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity.”
Source: Rasselas: A Tale
“Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.”
“The rules that I shall propose concerning secrecy, and from which I think it not safe to deviate without long and exact deliberation, are, never to solicit the knowledge of a secret,--not willingly, nor without many limitations, to accept such confidence when it is offered; when a secret is once admitted, to consider the trust as of a very high nature, important as society and sacred as truth, and therefore not to be violated for any incidental convenience, or slight appearance of contrary fitness.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
“The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.”
Source: The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals
“I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In the next place, young acquaintances must last longest, if they do last; and then, sir, young men have more virtue than old men; they have more generous sentiments in every respect.”
“Many causes may vitiate a writer's judgement of his own works. On that which has cost him much labour he sets a high value, because he is unwilling to think that he has been diligent in vain: what has been produced without toilsome efforts is considered with delight as a proof of vigorous faculties and fertile invention; and the last work, whatever it be, has necessarily most of the grace of novelty.”
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 ...
“Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
“It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.”
Source: The Rambler
“Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and far from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Ionia.”
“Dishonor waits on perfidy. A man should blush to think a falsehood; it is the crime of cowards.”
“How gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die: that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on forever!”
Source: THE
“Books, says Lord Bacon, can never teach us the use of books; the student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce his speculations to practice. No man should think so highly of himself as to think he can receive but little light from books; no one so meanly, as to believe he can discover nothing but what is to be learned from them.”
“All to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary arts of contracting expense; for without economy none can be rich, and with it few can be poor.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An Essay on His Life and Genius
“The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous that others should think us still better than we think ourselves. To praise us for actions or dispositions which deserve praise is not to confer a benefit, but to pay a tribute. We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable, and which we are desirous to strengthen by a new suffrage; we have always hopes which we suspect to be fallacious, and of which we eagerly snatch at every confirmation.”
Source: The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler
“Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it, for all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker succession of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuousness.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
“Where no man thinks himself under any obligation to submit to another, and, instead of co-operating in one great scheme, every one hastens through by-paths to private profit, no great change can suddenly be made; nor is superior knowledge of much effect, where every man resolves to use his own eyes and his own judgment, and every one applauds his own dexterity and diligence, in proportion as he becomes rich sooner than his neighbour.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Lives of the poets
“1. Turn all care out of your head as soon as you mount the chaise.
2. Do not think about frugality: your health is worth more than it can cost.
3. Do not continue any day's journey to fatigue.
4. Take now and then a day's rest.
5. Get a smart seasickness if you can.
6. Cast away all anxiety, and keep your mind easy.
This last direction is the principal; with an unquiet mind neither exercise, nor diet, nor physic can be of much use.”
Source: The Letters of Samuel Johnson with Mrs. Thrale's Genuine Letters to Him: 1775-1782
“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, L. L. D.: In Twelve Volumes
“Language is the dress of thought.”
“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.”
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 ...
“Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
“A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.”
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
“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.”
Source: The Lives of the English Poets: With Critical Observations on Their Works and Lives of Sundry Eminent Persons
“Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.”
“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.”
“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
“Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.”
“No man can enjoy happiness without thinking that he enjoys it.”
Source: The Rambler: In Four Volumes
“The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.”
“The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends.”
“He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.”
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
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
“He that thinks he can afford to be negligent is not far from being poor.”
Source: The Rambler: In Four Volumes
“Flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second place, whether he thinks so or not, he certainly thinks those whom he flatters of consequence enough to be flattered.”
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
“Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.”
“No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender officiousness; and, therefore, no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained.”
Source: Johnsoniana: Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson
“Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.”
“You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. 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.”
“If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still”
Source: Doctor Johnson: his religious life and his death. By the author of
“All envy is proportionate to desire; we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
“Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.”
Source: Selected poetry and prose
“His scorn of the great is repeated too often to be real; no man thinks much of that which he despises.”
Source: The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland: And a Criticism on Their Works
“Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt.”
“He that never thinks can never be wise.”
Source: The Beauties of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous, to which are Now Added, Biographical Anecdotes of the Doctor, Selected from the Late Productions of Mrs. Piozzi, Mr. Boswell, ...
“The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.”
“It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.”
Source: Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson
“Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly; and whoever, therefore, finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius
“As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.”
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson
“Those who attempt nothing themselves think every thing easily performed, and consider the unsuccessful always as criminal.”
Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
