Samuel Johnson Quotes

I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice.

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings.

I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.

The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.

Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going."

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

I [Boswell] happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here."

The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.

Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind, from China to Peru.

Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

Your work is both good and original but the part which is original is not good and the part which is good is not original!