414 quotes
Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
Much may be made of a Scotchman if he be caught young.
Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.
A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)
Were it not for imagination, Sir, a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a Duchess.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.
The Idler (1758)
A man may choose whether he will have abstemiousness and knowledge, or claret and ignorance.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night; and then the nap takes me.
In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
The Rambler (1750)
There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.
Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786)
This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)
Sir, as a man advances in life, he gets what is better than admiration, — judgement, to estimate things at their true value.
A man who is good enough to go to heaven, is good enough to be a clergyman.
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do any thing.