Quote

Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

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
Doe
Fellow
Bark
Come
Corners
Retire
Nothing
Philosophical
Retired
Think
Fellows
Laziness
Thinking
Drive
Cowardice
Life
Sorry
Retiring
World
Pride
Retirement
Hate
Corner
Growl

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.
Samuel Johnson
Image
To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar
Samuel Johnson
Image
Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
Samuel Johnson
Image
We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
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
Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one place like another to dress and to undress, to eat and to sleep, are the same in London as in the country.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The king who makes war on his enemies tenderly distresses his subjects most cruelly.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Advice is offensive, it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ourselves.
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
As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Friendship, compounded of esteem and love, derives from one its tenderness and its permanence from the other.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
Samuel Johnson
Image
What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
Samuel Johnson