Quote

Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained

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
Degrees
Judging
Detained
Judgment
Magnifying
Imagination
Restrain
Long
Scarcely
Judgement
Sufficient
Degree

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
Samuel Johnson
Image
All theory is against free will all experience is for it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Hides from himself his state, and shuns to know That life protracted is protracted woe.
Samuel Johnson
Image
To purchase Heaven has gold the power? Can gold remove the mortal hour? In life can love be bought with gold? Are friendship's pleasures to be sold? No--all that's worth a wish--a thought, Fair virtue gives unbribed, unbought. Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind, Let nobler views engage thy mind.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Remember that nothing will supply the want of prudence, and that negligence and irregularity long continued will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.
Samuel Johnson
Image
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
Image
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance, and the parent of Liberty.
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
Every other author may aspire to praise the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Life protracted is protracted woe.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The maxim of Cleobulus, Mediocrity is best, has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will shake all the branches. Advice cherished by Samuel Johnson that that, if one is to master any subject, one must first discover its general principles.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Conjecture as to things useful, is good but conjecture as to what it would be useless to know, is very idle.
Samuel Johnson