Samuel Johnson Quotes

All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.

I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.

You can never be wise unless you love reading.

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.

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

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilisation.

He who praises everybody praises nobody.

A thousand horrid Prodigies foretold it.
A feeble government, eluded Laws,
A factious Populace, luxurious Nobles,
And all the maladies of stinking states.

No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.

A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. Consider, sir; what is the purpose of courts of justice? It is, that every man may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed to try causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he knows to be a lie: he is not to produce what he knows to be a false deed; but he is not to usurp the province of the jury and of the judge, and determine what shall be the effect of evidence — what shall be the result of legal argument.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world."