Samuel Johnson Life Quotations

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

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

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

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

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.

Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

There is nothing so much seduces reason from vigilance as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman in marriage.

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

Prudence keeps life safe, but it does not often make it happy.

That man (Lord Lyttelton) sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him

In the decline of life shame and grief are of short duration; whether it be that we bear easily what we have borne long; or that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard others; or, that we look with slight regard upon afflictions to w

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

The truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into the short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.

We took tea, by Boswell's desire; and I eat one bun, I think, that I might not be seen to fast ostentatiously. When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in humble hope of the help of God.

Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe.

Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take care of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

There is little peace or comfort in life if we are always anxious as to future events. He that worries himself with the dread of possible contingencies will never be at rest.

A man is not obliged honestly to answer a question which should not properly be put.

Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.

That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

Catch, then, oh! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short summer-man a flower; He dies-alas! how soon he dies!

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.

The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.

Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.

Learn that the present hour alone is man's.

The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence....

Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.

Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions or elegant enjoyments. The greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption.

A minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendor which dazzles the imagination. Whatsoever grandeur can display, or luxury enjoy, is procured by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the shambles and the dunghill; all magnificence of building was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of ornament dug from among the damps and darkness of the mine.