Samuel Johnson Men Quotations

Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

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.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's virtues the means of deceiving him.

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

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so happy as a married man, that he wishes to be so a second time.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.

When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

I have observed, that in comedy, the best actor plays the part of the droll, while some scrub rogue is made the hero, or fine gentleman. So, in this farce of life, wise men pass their time in mirth, whilst fools only are serious.

Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having.

The roads of science are narrow, so that they who travel them, must wither follow or meet one another...

...a man estimable for his learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliance of wit; a wit who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal.

No man is much regarded by the rest of the world. He that considers how little he dwells upon the condition of others, will learn how little the attention of others is attracted by himself. While we see multitudes passing before us, of whom perhaps not one appears to deserve our notice or excites our sympathy, we should remember, that we likewise are lost in the same throng, that the eye which happens to glance upon us is turned in a moment on him that follows us, and that the utmost which we can reasonably hope or fear is to fill a vacant hour with prattle, and be forgotten.

Piety practiced in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence.

Sir, I have no objection to a man's drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a man, you do him an injury; and, if he is overcome, you share his guilt.

You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe.

No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.

All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.

Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.

Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?

The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety.

If a man is in doubt whether it would be better for him to expose himself to martyrdom or not, he should not do it. He must be convinced that he has a delegation from heaven.

Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire.

Keeping accounts, sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today because you have written down what it cost yesterday.

No man is obliged to do as much as he can do. A man is to have part of his life to himself.

The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be scarcely sensible of it.

Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction produces rivalry.

Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.

The balls of sight are so formed, that one man's eyes are spectacles to another, to read his heart with.

A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.

Every man has something to do which he neglects, every man has faults to conquer which he delays to combat.

To do something is in every man's power.

Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself might convey his notions to another, if, content to be understood, he did not seek to be admired.

Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.

A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.

Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.

It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure.

Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.

As a man advances in life he gets what is better than admiration -judgement to estimate things at their own value.

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.

No man likes to live under the eye of perpetual disapprobation.

I do not see, Sir, that it is reasonable for a man to be angry at another, whom a woman has preferred to him; but angry he is, no doubt; and he is loath to be angry at himself.

In questions of law or of fact conscience is very often confounded with opinion. No man's conscience can tell him the rights of another man; they must be known by rational investigation or historical inquiry.

There is no crime more infamous than the violation of truth. It is apparent that men can be social beings no longer than they believe each other. When speech is employed only as the vehicle of falsehood, every man must disunite himself from others, inhabit his own cave and seek prey only for himself.

This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

A thousand years may elapse before there shall appear another man with a power of versification equal to that of Pope.

As the mind must govern the hands, so in every society the man of intelligence must direct the man of labor.

It is commonly a weak man who marries for love.

It may be laid down as a position which seldom deceives, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.

Men become friends by a community of pleasures.

Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him; and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive; for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities; as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.

Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books.

No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with promoting the corruption of others. He whose merit has enlarged his influence would surely wish to exert it for the benefit of mankind. Yet such will be the effect of his reputation, while he suffers himself to indulge in any favourite fault, that they who have no hope to reach his excellence will catch at his failings, and his virtues will be cited to justify the copiers of his vices.

The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness or thoughtless vanity are adopted with design.

But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.

Every one should consider himself as intrusted not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not only for the duties which he neglects, or the crimes that he commits, but for that negligence and irregularity which he may encourage or inculcate. Every man, in whatever station, has, or endeavours to have his followers, admirers, and imitators, and has therefore the influence of his example to watch with care.

Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.

Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches their ears, flattery is always at hand to pour in her opiates, to quiet conviction and obtund remorse.

The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.

In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it; for no species of falsehood is more frequent than flattery, to which the coward is betrayed by fear, the dependent by interest, and the friend by tenderness: those who are neither servile nor timorous are yet desirous to bestow pleasure; and, while unjust demands of praise continue to be made, there will always be some whom hope, fear, or kindness will dispose to pay them.

No wonder, Sir, that he is vain; a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.