Quotes from Samuel Johnson

If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in the other insurmountable distresses of humanity? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure. Life may be lengthened by care, though death cannot be ultimately defeated: tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration; we have long preserved our constitution, let us make some struggles for our language.

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.

Reason by degrees submits to absurdity, as the eye in time is accommodated to darkness.

To bring back riches from the East you must bring riches with you.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

I look upon it that a man who does not mind his stomach would hardly mind anything else.

our triumphant age of plenty is riddled with darker feelings of doubt, cynicism, distrust, boredom and a strange kind of emptiness

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the melody of birds, the whisper of groves, and the murmur of rivulets.

Of the uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of reason.

Where then shall Hope and Fear their objects find? Must dull Suspense corrupt the stagnant Mind? Must helpless Man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the Torrent of his Fate? Must no Dislike alarm, no Wishes rise, Nor Cries invoke the Mercies of the Skies? Enquirer, cease, Petitions yet remain Which Heaven may hear, nor deem Religion vain. Still raise for Good the supplicating Voice, But leave to Heaven the Measure and the Choice.

Novel: A small tale, generally of love.

Grammar, which is the art of using words properly, comprises four parts: Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, and Prosody.

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

There is no matter what children should learn first, any more than what leg you should put into your breeches first. Sir, you may stand disputing which is best to put in first, but in the meantime your backside is bare. Sire, while you stand considering which of two things you should teach your child first, another boy has learn't 'em both.

ÆTHIOPS-MINERAL  (Æ'THIOPS-MINERAL)   n.s. A medicine so called, from its dark colour, prepared of quicksilver and sulphur, ground together in a marble mortar to a black powder. Such as have used it most, think its virtues not very great.Quincy.

Converse with almost any man, grown old in a profession, and you will find him regretting that he did not enter into some different course, to which he too late finds his genius better adapted, or in which he discovers that wealth and honour are more easily attained.

Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.

Once a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

APPEARER  (APPE'ARER)   n.s.[from To appear.]The person that appears. That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignify unlucky events, was an augurial conception.Brown'sVul. Err.

Our desires increase with our possessions.

Every man, who proposes to grow eminent by learning, should carry in his mind, at once, the difficulty of excellence, and the force of industry; and remember that fame is not conferred but as the recompense of labour, and that labour, vigorously continued, has not often failed of its reward.