Quotes from Samuel Johnson

The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not obliged to speak the truth.

There are some, however, that know the prejudice of mankind in favour of modest sincerity. The vendor of the beautifying fluid sells a lotion that repels pimples, washes away freckles, smooths the skin, and plumps the flesh; and yet, with a generous abhorrence of ostentation, confesses, that it will not restore the bloom of fifteen to a lady of fifty.

He is no wise man who will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.

A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed.

It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication of flattery.

The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity.

Celestial wisdom calms the mind.

I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.

I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it

Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.