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Dr Johnson Quotes

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Dr Johnson Quotes

“The greatest artists, saints, philosophers, and, until quite recent times, scientists... have all assumed that the New Testament promise of eternal life is valid.... I'd rather be wrong with Dante and Shakespeare and Milton, with Augustine of Hippo and Francis of Assisi, with Dr. Johnson, Blake, and Dostoevsky than right with Voltaire, Rousseau, the Huxleys, Herbert Spencer, H. G. Wells, and Bernard Shaw.”

Wells Life Is Artist Promise Eternal Scientist Saint Philosopher Drs Testament Johnson Eternal Life New Testament Blake Milton Augustine Hippo Huxley Bernard Shaw Dr Johnson

Author:Malcolm Muggeridge

“I'm an advocate of the great Dr. Johnson, the English man of letters who said that patriotism was the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

Men Said Lasts Letters Patriotism Nationalism Refuge Drs Johnson Scoundrels Dr Johnson

Author:George Galloway

“My own approach to literary problems is very like the one Dr. Johnson's blind housekeeper used when she poured tea-she put her finger inside the cup.”

Problem Used My Own Approach Blind Fingers Cups Tea Drs Johnson Housekeepers Dr Johnson

Book:Mystery and Manners

Source: Mystery and Manners

“I do not think very highly of Madame D'Arblay's books. The style is so strutting. She does so stalk about on Dr. Johnson's old stilts.”

Thinking Doe Book Style Drs Johnson Stalking Stilts Strutting Dr Johnson

Book:The Life of Mary Russell Mitford ; Related in an Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends. Ed. by A.G. Estrange

Source: The Life of Mary Russell Mitford ; Related in an Selection from Her Letters to Her Friends. Ed. by A.G. Estrange

“Culture is like the sum of special knowledge that accumulates in any large united family and is the common property of all its members. When we of the great Culture Family meet, we exchange reminiscences about Grandfather Homer, and that awful old Dr. Johnson, and Aunt Sappho, and poor Johnny Keats.”

Culture Poor United Common Special Members Property Awful Grandfather Drs Aunt Johnson Dr Johnson United Family

Book:Complete Essays: 1920-1925

Source: Complete Essays: 1920-1925

“Dr. Johnson was a lazy learned man who liked to think and talk better than to read or write; who, however, wrote much and well, but too often by rote.”

Thinking Men Writing Wells Lazy Laziness Drs Johnson Dr Johnson

Book:Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)

“Even happiness itself may become habitual. There is a habit of looking at the bright side of things, and also of looking at the dark side. Dr. Johnson has said that the habit of looking at the best side of a thing is worth more to a man than a thousand pounds a year. And we possess the power, to a great extent, of so exercising the will as to direct the thoughts upon objects calculated to yield happiness and improvement rather than their opposites.”

Source: Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance by Samuel Smiles

“When Dr. Johnson defined patriotism as the last refuge of a scoundrel, he ignored the enormous possibilities of the word reform.”

Lasts Possibility Enormous Defined Reform Refuge Drs Ignored Johnson Scoundrels Dr Johnson

Author:Roscoe Conkling

“Patriotism, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit it is the first.”

Source: The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World

“Dr. Johnson ... sometimes employed himself in chymistry, sometimes in watering and pruning a vine, and sometimes in small experiments, at which those who may smile, should recollect that there are moments which admit of being soothed only by trifles.”

Should May Sometimes Moments Science Experiments Chemistry Drs Employed Johnson Trifles Vines Pruning Dr Johnson

Book:Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson: Easyread Super Large 18pt Edition

“Dr Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent, should be.”

Should Has Beens Said Should Have Universal Permanent Latin Drs Johnson Should Have Been Inscriptions Dr Johnson

Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides: In Five Volumes

Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides: In Five Volumes

“Dr. Johnson has said that the chief glory of a country arises from its authors. But then that is only as they are oracles of wisdom; unless they teach virtue, they are more worthy of a halter than of the laurel.”

Said Country Wisdom Teach Virtue Glory Worthy Arise Chiefs Drs Johnson Laurels Oracles Dr Johnson

Book:Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks

Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks

“You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do; but a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.”

Thinking Littles Too Much Taste Fellows Longing Contrary Reputation Streams Disgusting Sail Drs Strokes Flattery Johnson Oar Dr Johnson

Book: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 works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, recently published by Mr. Boswell, and other authentic testimonies; also his will, and the sermon he wrote for the late Doctor Dodd

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 works of Mrs. Piozzi;--his Life, recently published by Mr. Boswell, and other authentic testimonies; also his will, and the sermon he wrote for the late Doctor Dodd

“Some people act as if it were demeaning to their manhood to wish to be well-read but you can no more be a healthy person mentally without reading substantial books than you can be a vigorous person physically without eating solid food. Books should be chosen, not for their freedom from evil, but for their possession of good. Dr. Johnson said: "Whilst you stand deliberating which book your son shall read first, another boy has read both."”

People Ifs Should Firsts Wells Persons Said Book Evil Reading Wish Boys Son Healthy Eating Possession Chosen Drs Manhood Johnson Vigorous Your Son Demeaning Healthy Person Dr Johnson

Author:Earl Nightingale

“Dr Johnson died in 1944. The suspicion exists that he was silenced...However two federal inspectors did examine his hospital record in the late 1950's. They concluded it was likely that he was poisoned.”

Two Records Late Died Cancer Hospitals Suspicion Drs Johnson Inspectors Dr Johnson

Author:Barry Lynes

“The stone that Dr. Johnson once kicked to demonstrate the reality of matter has become dissipated in a diffuse distribution of mathematical probabilities. The ladder that Descartes, Galileo, Newton, and Leibniz erected in order to scale the heavens rests upon a continually shifting, unstable foundation.”

Matter Reality Science Order Heaven Stones Foundation Scales Mathematical Drs Probability Distribution Ladders Shifting Johnson Newton Unstable Dr Johnson

Book:Mathematics in Western Culture

Source: Mathematics in Western Culture

“Boswell: But, Sir is it not somewhat singular that you should happen to have Cocker's Arithmetic about you on your journey? Dr. Johnson: Why, Sir if you are to have but one book with you upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you; but a book of science is inexhaustible.”

Ifs Knows Should Book Happens Science Can Do Journey Entertainment Drs Johnson Arithmetic Dr Johnson

Book:Journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson LL.D.: containing some poetical pieces by Dr. Johnson, relative to the tour, and never before published ... : with an authentic account of the distresses and escape of the grandson of King James II. in the year 1746

Source: Journal of a tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson LL.D.: containing some poetical pieces by Dr. Johnson, relative to the tour, and never before published ... : with an authentic account of the distresses and escape of the grandson of King James II. in the year 1746