Samuel Johnson Quotes
Born: September 18, 1709
Samuel Johnson, though a titan of 18th-century letters, speaks with startling prescience to the modern age of innovation. His philosophy championed the relentless pursuit of knowledge, the rigorous testing of ideas against reality, and the moral courage to challenge convention. For today’s tech pioneers, Johnson’s quotes resonate because they strip away hype, revealing the timeless human principles behind every breakthrough: the necessity of hard work, the value of clear thinking, and the resilience required to build something that truly lasts. His legacy is a masterclass in intellectual integrity.
Samuel Johnson Quotes (67)
"My dear friend, clear your mind of cant."
— Samuel Johnson"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution."
— Samuel Johnson"Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance."
— Samuel Johnson"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
— Samuel Johnson"Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged; crimes are avenged."
— Samuel Johnson"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned... a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company."
— Samuel Johnson"Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful."
— Samuel Johnson"The true art of memory is the art of attention."
— Samuel Johnson"Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise."
— Samuel Johnson"What is easy is seldom excellent."
— Samuel Johnson"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."
— Samuel Johnson"One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts."
— Samuel Johnson"The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."
— Samuel Johnson"Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."
— Samuel Johnson"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."
— Samuel Johnson"Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others."
— Samuel Johnson"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not."
— Samuel Johnson"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
— Samuel Johnson"A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good."
— Samuel Johnson"Language is the dress of thought."
— Samuel Johnson"Exercise is labor without weariness."
— Samuel Johnson"To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self."
— Samuel Johnson"Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little."
— Samuel Johnson"It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust."
— Samuel Johnson"Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth."
— Samuel Johnson"Words are but the signs of ideas."
— Samuel Johnson"No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring."
— Samuel Johnson"Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity."
— Samuel Johnson"There are charms made only for distant admiration."
— Samuel Johnson