| 208 Famous Quotes by Samuel Johnson
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“To shake with laughter ere the jest they hear,
To pour at will the counterfeited tear;
And, as their patron hints the cold or heat,
To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.”
Courtiers Quotes Source: London (l. 140)
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“Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.”
Conversation Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner
does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him,
and benumbs all his faculties.”
Conversation Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“His conversation does not show the minute hand; but he strikes
the hour very correctly.”
Conversation Quotes Source: Johnsoniana--Kearsley (l. 604)
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“He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dulness in others.”
Stupidity Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken
him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an
excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature.”
Stupidity Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson, of R.B. Sheridan
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“I fly from pleasure, because pleasure has ceased to please: I am
lonely because I am miserable.”
Pleasure Quotes Source: Rasselas (ch. III)
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“A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of
a garden.”
Cows Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“London! the needy villain's general home,
The common sewer of Paris and of Rome!
With eager thirst, by folly or by fate,
Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.”
London Quotes Source: London (l. 93)
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“The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high-road
that leads him to England.”
Scotland Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson (vol. II, ch. V)
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“This mournful truth is everywhere confess'd,
Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd.”
Worth Quotes Source: London (l. 175)
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“A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.”
Habit Quotes Source: Rasselas (ch. XII)
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“Language is the only instrument of science, and words are but the
signs of ideas.”
Language Quotes Source: Preface to his English Dictionary
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“A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who
have risen far above him.”
Ingratitude Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.”
Idleness Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“How guilt once harbour'd in the conscious breast,
Intimidates the brave, degrades the great.”
Guilt Quotes Source: Irene (act IV, sc, 8)
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“But here more slow, where all are slaves to gold,
Where looks are merchandise, and smiles are sold.”
Bribery Quotes Source: London (l. 177)
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“Our supple tribes repress their patriot throats,
And ask no questions but the price of votes.”
Bribery Quotes Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (l. 95)
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“An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.”
Innocence Quotes Source: Vanity of Human Wishes (l. 293)
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“This man [Chesterfield] I thought had been a lord among wits; but
I find he is only a wit among lords.”
Wit Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads
of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and
irregular possession.”
Fanaticism Quotes Source: Boswell's Life of Johnson
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“As any action or posture long continued will distort and
disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled and
contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas.”
Fanaticism Quotes Source: Rambler (#173)
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“Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as
none at all, but not quite.”
Fanaticism Quotes Source: Rambler (#173)
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“Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have
forgotten your aim.”
Fanaticism Quotes Source: Rambler (#173)
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“The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity.”
Fanaticism Quotes Source: Rambler (#173)
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Samuel Johnson Quotes, Quotations, and Sayings
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