Samuel Johnson

(1709 - 1784 / Lichfield / England)

poet Samuel Johnson
#353 on top 500 poets

Samuel Johnson Quotes

  • ''Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. Quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, March 28, 1776 (1791).
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  • ''Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. repr. in Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 4, eds. W.J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (1969). Rambler (London, March 1751), no. 103.
    22 person liked.
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  • ''What is the reason that women servants ... have much lower wages than men servants ... when in fact our female house servants work much harder than the male?''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. (Originally published 1791). Boswell's Life of Johnson, April 13, 1773, p. 513, Oxford University Press (1980).
    19 person liked.
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  • ''The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. Quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, entry for 1781 (1791).
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  • ''The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. repr. in Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 3, eds. W.J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (1969). Rambler (London, March 24, 1750), no. 2.
    12 person liked.
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  • ''Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. Said to the lawyer Oliver Edwards. Quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, April 17, 1778 (1791).
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  • ''That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. repr. in Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 3, eds. W.J. Bate and Albrecht B. Strauss (1969). Rambler (London, March 31, 1750), no. 4.
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  • ''This was a good enough dinner, to be sure; but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. Quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). for Aug. 5, 1763.
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  • ''"Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it".... "That, Sir, I find is what a great many of your countrymen cannot help."''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. (Originally published 1791). Boswell's Life of Johnson, May 16, 1763, p. 277, Oxford University Press (1980).
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  • ''By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by shewing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.''
    Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), British author, lexicographer. quoted in James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, Sept. 30, 1769 (1791). On another occasion (1770), Johnson described the remarriage of "a gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage" as "the triumph of hope over experience."
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Best Poem of Samuel Johnson

Epitaph On Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart.

Thou who survey'st these walls with curious eye,
Pause at this tomb where Hanmer's ashes lie;
His various worth through varied life attend,
And learn his virtues while thou mourn'st his end.
His force of genius burn'd in early youth,
With thirst of knowledge, and with love of truth;
His learning, joined with each endearing art,
Charm'd every ear, and gain'd every heart.
Thus early wise, the endanger'd real to aid,
His country call'd him from the studious shade;
In life's first bloom his public toils began,
At once commenced the senator and man.
In business ...

Read the full of Epitaph On Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart.

Anacreon: Ode 9

Lovely courier of the sky,
Whence and whither dost thou fly?
Scattering, as thy pinions play,
Liquid fragrance all the way:
Is it business? is it love?
Tell me, tell me, gentle dove.
'Soft Anacreon's vows I bear,
Vows to Myrtale the fair;
Graced with all that charms the heart,

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