Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Whoever shall review his life will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped

The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate.

An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.

Tea's proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.

Small debts are like small gun shot; they are rattling around us on all sides and one can scarcely escape being wounded. Large debts are like canons, they produce a loud noise, but are of little danger.

Surely, it is much easier to respect a man who has always had respect, than to respect a man who we know was last year no better than ourselves, and will be no better next year.

No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them.

Words become low by the occasions to which they are applied, or the general character of them who use them; and the disgust which they produce arises from the revival of those images with which they are commonly united.

He that hopes to look back hereafter with satisfaction upon past years must learn to know the present value of single minutes, and endeavour to let no particle of time fall useless to the ground.

Critics, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by interest

Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it

The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence.

A man guilty of poverty easily believes himself suspected.

Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with too much dejection

Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Revenge is the act of passion, vengeance is an act of justice.

Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.

I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations

That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments

The woman's a whore, and there's an end on 't.

The two most engaging powers of an author: new things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.

Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.