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Language is the dress of thought and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy

Samuel Johnson

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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
Thought
Employment
Obscured
Would
Sentiments
Degraded
Dress
Graceful
Dresses
Efficacy
Lose
Mechanics
Mien
Loses
Noblest
Employments
Language
Mechanic
Garb
Action
Gross
Appropriated

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which they do not feel and consent to yield to the general delusion.
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It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
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Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.
Samuel Johnson
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It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow.
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Misery is caused for the most part, not by a heavy crush of disaster, but by the corrosion of less visible evils, which canker enjoyment, and undermine security. The visit of an invader is necessarily rare, but domestic animosities allow no cessation.
Samuel Johnson
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As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.
Samuel Johnson
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God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?
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I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession.
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The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.
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It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
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Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation.
Samuel Johnson
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The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.
Samuel Johnson
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Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.
Samuel Johnson
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He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
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Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
Samuel Johnson
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Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.
Samuel Johnson
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Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
Samuel Johnson
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Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury for, as I said before it can reach but a very few.
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The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.
Samuel Johnson
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When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
Samuel Johnson