Quote

We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

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
Pity
Creatures
Unless
Seeing
Wish
Relieve
Feelings
Uneasy
May
Distress
Without
Creature

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans we may therefore subject them to government.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Combinations of wickedness would overwhelm the world, by the advantage which licentious principles afford, did not those who have long practised perfidy grow faithless to each other.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Such is the constitution of Man that labor may be said to be its own re-ward.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I wish you would add an index rerum, that when the reader recollects any incident he may easily find it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Wit will never make a man rich, but there are places where riches will always make a wit.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The complaint, therefore, that all topicks are preoccupied, is nothing more than the murmur of ignorance or idleness, by which some discourage others, and some themselves the mutability of mankind will always furnish writers with new images, and the luxuriance of fancy may always embellish them with new decorations.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No one ever became great by imitation.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.
Samuel Johnson
Image
All envy is proportionate to desire we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He who fails to please in his salutation and address is at once rejected, and never obtains an opportunity of showing his latest excellences or essential qualities.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The true art of memory is the art of attention.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Let him go abroad to a distant country let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Every government is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the re-establishment of its original constitution.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children and those who marry early, with their partners.
Samuel Johnson