Quote

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

Samuel Johnson

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Folly
Fool
Wise
Wisdom
Dream
Love

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do but a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience you will find it a calamity.
Samuel Johnson
Image
This is my history like all other histories, a narrative of misery.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on coarse occasions, we do not easily receive strong impressions, or delightful images and words to which we are nearly strangers, whenever they occur, draw that attention on themselves which they should transmit to other things.
Samuel Johnson
Image
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
Samuel Johnson
Image
This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.
Samuel Johnson
Image
His virtues walked their narrow round, Nor made a pause, nor left a void And sure the Eternal Master found The single talent well employed.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to he right.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Misfortunes should always be expected.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: Endless labor all along, Endless labor to be wrong: Phrase that Time has flung away Uncouth words in disarray, Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet, Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
Samuel Johnson
Image
When once the forms of civility are violated, there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency.
Samuel Johnson
Image
All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Our minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Wickedness is always easier than virtue for it takes the short cut to everything.
Samuel Johnson