Quote

The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow.

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
Clubs
Bruised
Abuse
Coarse
Difference
Arrow
Differences
Arrows
Refined
Wounded
Club
Cruelty
Poisoned

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
The whole power of cunning is privative to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No man can perform so little as not to have reason to congratulate himself on his merits, when he beholds the multitude that live in total idleness, and have never yet endeavoured to be useful.
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
Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry whether ... learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames. Intentions must be gathered from acts.
Samuel Johnson
Image
All is not gold that glitters, as we have often been told and the adage is verified in your place and my favour but if what happens does not make us richer, we must bid it welcome, if it makes us wiser.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Never believe extraordinary characters which you hear of people. Depend upon it, they are exaggerated. You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is to common understandings of little use.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There is no idleness, by which we are so easily seduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has something to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Liberty is the parent of truth, but truth and decency are sometimes at variance. All men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve, and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
Samuel Johnson
Image
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
Image
No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Those who attempt nothing themselves think every thing easily performed, and consider the unsuccessful always as criminal.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The violence of war admits no distinction the lance, that is lifted at guilt and power, will sometimes fall on innocence and gentleness.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Discord generally operates in little things it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.
Samuel Johnson