The quotations of

Samuel Johnson

English writer and lexicographer

1709–1784

99 quotes, most often on Clever Jabs, Writing and Knowledge. Part of the Writers collection.

Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.
The Idler (1758–1760), No. 30 (11 November 1758)
- Truth & Lies
- War & Peace
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
The Idler (1758–1760), No. 57 (19 May 1759)
- Risk
- Wisdom
Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I (31 July 1763) p. 132. [Several editions have the variant “hind legs”.]
- Clever Jabs
- Women
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I (1754), p. 72 (n. 4)
- Clever Jabs
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II (1770) p. 181
- Clever Jabs
- Ideas
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Ch. XLI
- Character
- Knowledge
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 106 (23 March 1751)
- Fame
- Writing
Example is always more efficacious than precept.
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Ch. XXX
- Education
- Leadership
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (7 April 1779)
- Food
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
Letters to and from Dr. Samuel Johnson, Vol. I, p. 137
- Experience
He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.
Life of Johnson (Boswell) (1784)
- Clever Jabs
I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else.
Life of Johnson (Boswell) (1763)
- Food
‘Paradise Lost’ is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
- Poetry
- Reading
But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.
The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 175 (19 November 1751)
- Quotations
As it is necessary not to invite robbery by supineness, so it is our duty not to suppress tenderness by suspicion; it is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 79 (18 December 1750)
- Morality

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