2,116 Quotes by Samuel Johnson

No man can fall into contempt but those who deserve it.

The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick characters, or of filling tragedy with poetical images, must be the gift of nature, which no instruction nor labour can supply; but the art of dramatick disposition, the contexture of the scenes, the involution of the plot, the expedients of suspension, and the strategems of surprise, are to be learned by practice.

Many a man is mad in certain instances, and goes through life without having it perceived. For example, a madness has seized a person of supposing himself obliged literally to pray continually; had the madness turned the opposite way, and the person thought it a crime ever to pray, it might not improbably have continued unobserved.

A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.

The present is never a happy state to any human being.

To preserve health is a moral and religious duty, for health is the basis of all social virtues. We can no longer be useful when not well.

Grief is a species of idleness.

Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees.

It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.