Quote

Every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time: he should impute the seeming defects of his author to some chasm of intelligence, and suppose that the sense which is now weak was once forcible

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
Reader
Repair
Candour
Reading
Seeming
Impute
Sense
Defects
Forcible
Remember
Injury
Diffidence
Every
Author
Chasm
Time
Suppose
Chasms
Intelligence
Socrates
Weak
Injuries

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
Study requires solitude, and solitude is a state dangerous to those who are too much accustomed to sink into themselves
Samuel Johnson
Image
By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen. I hope I see things from a greater distance.
Samuel Johnson
Image
To build is to be robbed.
Samuel Johnson
Image
When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Wealth is nothing in itself it is not useful but when it departs from us.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.
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
If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson
Image
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Those that have done nothing in life, are not qualified to judge of those that have done little
Samuel Johnson
Image
Truth allows no choice.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He that is pushing his predecessors into the gulf of obscurity, cannot but sometimes suspect, that he must himself sink in like manner, and, as he stands upon the same precipice, be swept away with the same violence.
Samuel Johnson