What can we learn from quotes compilation of Samuel Johnson? I would say a great deal about endurance, focus and fortitude. Johnson was one of the most accomplished men of his era, but it was not always smooth sailing. Despite tremendous hardships and setbacks, he managed to achieve a great deal thanks to his hard work and dedication. If you’re feeling down or struggling with your own pursuits, reading about Johnson’s life should give you the inspiration you need to keep going.
Here are the strongest Hope, Power, Pleasure, Knowledge, Time, Human Beings, Life, World, Mind quotes from Samuel Johnson, and much more.
Summary
- About Samuel Johnson
- Samuel Johnson Quotes About The Mind
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Life
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Hope
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Pleasure
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Power
- Samuel Johnson Quotes About Time
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Human Beings
- Samuel Johnson Quotes About The World
- Samuel Johnson Quotes On Knowledge
About Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ABOUT THE MIND
Never mind the useโโdo it! โ Samuel Johnson
There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful. โ Samuel Johnson
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else. โ Samuel Johnson
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last. โ Samuel Johnson
Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds. โ Samuel Johnson
The fountain of contentment must spring up in the mind. โ Samuel Johnson
My dear friend, clear your mind of can’t. โ Samuel Johnson
Celestial wisdom calms the mind. โ Samuel Johnson
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. โ Samuel Johnson
A man’s mind grows narrow in a narrow place. โ Samuel Johnson
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye. โ Samuel Johnson
Nothing so concentrates the mind as the sight of the gallows. โ Samuel Johnson
W]ith an unquiet mind, neither exercise, nor diet, nor physick can be of much use. โ Samuel Johnson
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. โ Samuel Johnson
A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal. โ Samuel Johnson
No mind is much employed upon the present recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. โ Samuel Johnson
It is man’s own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON LIFE
The business of life is to go forward. โ Samuel Johnson
As long as one lives he will have need of repentance. โ Samuel Johnson
Life protracted is protracted woe. โ Samuel Johnson
Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship. โ Samuel Johnson
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. โ Samuel Johnson
He who attempts to do all will waste his life in doing little. โ Samuel Johnson
Spite and illโnature are among the most expensive luxuries in life. โ Samuel Johnson
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions. โ Samuel Johnson
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment. โ Samuel Johnson
The joy of life is variety. โ Samuel Johnson
When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life. โ Samuel Johnson
Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do. โ Samuel Johnson
Books without the knowledge of life are useless. โ Samuel Johnson
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties. โ Samuel Johnson
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed. โ Samuel Johnson
A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it. โ Samuel Johnson
Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON HOPE
The hopes of zeal are not wholly groundless. โ Samuel Johnson
Hope is itself a species of happiness. โ Samuel Johnson
It is necessary to hope… for hope itself is happiness. โ Samuel Johnson
Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler. โ Samuel Johnson
When there is no hope, there can be no endeavor. โ Samuel Johnson
Whatever enlarges hope will also exalt courage. โ Samuel Johnson
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence. โ Samuel Johnson
The triumph of hope over experience. โ Samuel Johnson
All industry must be excited by hope. โ Samuel Johnson
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 to much dejection. โ Samuel Johnson
I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian. โ Samuel Johnson
The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed. โ Samuel Johnson
Hope is necessary in every condition. โ Samuel Johnson
Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach. โ Samuel Johnson
Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation. โ Samuel Johnson
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. โ Samuel Johnson
We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled by desire, and seduced by pleasure. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON PLEASURE
No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures. โ Samuel Johnson
The public pleasures of far the greater part of mankind are counterfeit. โ Samuel Johnson
It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure. โ Samuel Johnson
Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience. โ Samuel Johnson
The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting. โ Samuel Johnson
The great source of pleasure is variety. โ Samuel Johnson
Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice. โ Samuel Johnson
Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures. โ Samuel Johnson
The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure. โ Samuel Johnson
A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures. โ Samuel Johnson
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation. โ Samuel Johnson
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth. โ Samuel Johnson
Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse. โ Samuel Johnson
The liberty of using harmless pleasure will not be disputed; but it is still to be examined what pleasures are harmless. โ Samuel Johnson
Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain. โ Samuel Johnson
He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures. โ Samuel Johnson
His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON POWER
To do something is in every man’s power. โ Samuel Johnson
Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not. โ Samuel Johnson
The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute. โ Samuel Johnson
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth. โ Samuel Johnson
Power is gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent. โ Samuel Johnson
The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new. โ Samuel Johnson
There must always be a struggle between a father and son, while one aims at power and the other at independence. โ Samuel Johnson
Redundant Thematics
In Samuel Johnson Statements
Some have little power to do good, and have likewise little strength to resist evil. โ Samuel Johnson
No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. โ Samuel Johnson
He that has once concluded it lawful to resist power, when it wants merit, will soon find a want of merit, to justify his resistance to power. โ Samuel Johnson
All power of fancy over reason is a degree of madness. โ Samuel Johnson
Dogs have not the power of comparing. A dog will take a small piece of meat as readily as a large, when both are before him. โ Samuel Johnson
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain eitHer honesty or courage. โ Samuel Johnson
A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope. โ Samuel Johnson
Reproof should not exhaust its power upon petty failings. โ Samuel Johnson
Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. โ Samuel Johnson
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ABOUT TIME
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it. โ Samuel Johnson
At seventyโseven it is time to be in earnest. โ Samuel Johnson
And panting Time toil’d after him in vain. โ Samuel Johnson
Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time. โ Samuel Johnson
We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart. โ Samuel Johnson
Time is, of all modes of existence, most obsequious to the imagination. โ Samuel Johnson
Every period of life is obliged to borrow its happiness from time to come. โ Samuel Johnson
Life, to be worthy of a rational being, must be always in progression; we must always purpose to do more or better than in time past. โ Samuel Johnson
Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations. โ Samuel Johnson
Complaints are vain; we will try to. do better another time. Toโmorrow and toโmorrow. A few designs and a few failures, and the time of designing is past. โ Samuel Johnson
It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. the act of dying is not of importance, It lasts so short a time. โ Samuel Johnson
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. โ Samuel Johnson
Reason will by degrees submit to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. โ Samuel Johnson
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity. โ Samuel Johnson
A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain. โ Samuel Johnson
A soldier’s time is passed in distress and danger, or in idleness and corruption. โ Samuel Johnson
Prejudice is a great timeโsaver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts. Prejudice not being founded on reason cannot be removed by argument. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON HUMAN BEINGS
The present is never a happy state to any human being. โ Samuel Johnson
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence. โ Samuel Johnson
A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity. โ Samuel Johnson
To strive with difficulties, and To conquer them, is the highest human felicity. โ Samuel Johnson
The cure for the greatest part of human miseries is not radical, but palliative. โ Samuel Johnson
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure. โ Samuel Johnson
Human happiness has always its abatements; the brightest sunshine of success is not without a cloud. โ Samuel Johnson
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man’s virtues the means of deceiving him. โ Samuel Johnson
Human reason borrowed many arts from the instinct of animals. โ Samuel Johnson
Such is the emptiness of human enjoyment that we are always impatient of the present. Attainment is followed by neglect, and possession by disgust. โ Samuel Johnson
Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ABOUT THE WORLD
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down. โ Samuel Johnson
I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me. โ Samuel Johnson
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords. โ Samuel Johnson
Ah! Sir, a boy’s being flogged is not so severe as a man’s having the hiss of the world against him. โ Samuel Johnson
This world, where much is to be done and little to be known. โ Samuel Johnson
You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe. โ Samuel Johnson
The finest landscape in the world is improved by a good inn in the foreground. โ Samuel Johnson
Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. โ Samuel Johnson
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world. โ Samuel Johnson
The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears. โ Samuel Johnson
I would rather see the portraIt of a dog that I know, than all the allegorIcal paIntIngs they can show me In the world. โ Samuel Johnson
Much mischief is done in the world with very little interest or design. โ Samuel Johnson
Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favour. โ Samuel Johnson
There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation. โ Samuel Johnson
The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON QUOTES ON KNOWLEDGE
No knowledge is useless, with the exception of heraldry. โ Samuel Johnson
Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without Integrity is dangerous and dreadful. โ Samuel Johnson
Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy; knowledge is not always present. โ Samuel Johnson
It is not often that any man can have so much knowledge of another, as is necessary to make instruction useful. โ Samuel Johnson
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance. โ Samuel Johnson
There are two types of knowledge. One is knowing a thing. The other is knowing where to find it. โ Samuel Johnson
As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which he cannot apply will make no man wise. โ Samuel Johnson
A little knowledge is a dangerous thingโit only hastens fools to rush in where angels fear to tread. โ Samuel Johnson
The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public. โ Samuel Johnson
Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. โ Samuel Johnson
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise. โ Samuel Johnson
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us. โ Samuel Johnson
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles. โ Samuel Johnson
Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it. โ Samuel Johnson
Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement. โ Samuel Johnson
SAMUEL JOHNSON Quotes Take Away
Samuel Johnson was onto something when he said, โThe chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken. Habits can be hard to break, but they can also be the key to our success. Once we understand how our habits work and what drives them, we can start making small changes that will have a big impact down the road. Are you curious about your own habits? Check out our courses for more insight into how you ticks. And who knows? Maybe youโll find the inspiration you need there to forge a new path for yourself.