Quote

A contempt of the monuments and the wisdom of the past, may be justly reckoned one of the reigning follies of these days, to which pride and idleness have equally contributed.

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
Wisdom
Contributed
Past
Monument
May
Idleness
Contempt
Reigning
Equally
Reckoned
Folly
Follies
Pride
Monuments
Days
Justly

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
I fly from pleasure, said the prince, because pleasure has ceased to please I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Rags will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The process is the reality.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.
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
Nature never gives everything at once.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.
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
Being married to those sleepy-souled women is just like playing at cards for nothing: no passion is excited and the time is filled up. I do not, however, envy a fellow one of those honeysuckle wives for my part, as they are but creepers at best and commonly destroy the tree they so tenderly cling about.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Samuel Johnson