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Samuel Johnson on Knowledge

1709–1784 England

← All quotes by Samuel Johnson

9 quotes

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

A man may choose whether he will have abstemiousness and knowledge, or claret and ignorance.

Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

Ignorance in other men may be censured as idleness, in an academick it must be abhorred as treachery.

He that voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces.

A desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge.

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)

Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength.

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759)

There Poetry shall tune her sacred voice,
And wake from ignorance the Western World.

The Tragedy of Irene (1749)

Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Johnson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.