Quote

There is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.

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
Able
Sorrow
Usefully
Look
Certainly
Tokens
Looks
Progress
Excite
Life
Memories
Recollection
Existence
Trace
Greater
Employed
Happiness
Shame
Back
Neither
Virtuously

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
Samuel Johnson
Image
All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Samuel Johnson
Image
So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night, and then the nap takes me.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I have already enjoyed too much give me something to desire.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we ought not to fear with to much dejection.
Samuel Johnson
Image
If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted let me serve Thee with active zeal, humbled confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Modern writers are the moons of literature they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions
Samuel Johnson
Image
The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No man can perform so little as not to have reason to congratulate himself on his merits, when he beholds the multitude that live in total idleness, and have never yet endeavoured to be useful.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Pope had been flattered till he thought himself one of the moving powers of the system of life. When he talked of laying down his pen, those who sat round him intreated and implored and self-love did not suffer him to suspect that they went away and laughed.
Samuel Johnson