Quote

Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.

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
State
Confess
Whatever
Desirable
States
Forced
Feel
Misery
Feels
Distance
Paint
Present
Imagination
Paints

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
Samuel Johnson
Image
When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is astonishing that any man can forbear enquiring seriously whether there is a God whether God is just whether this life is the only state of existence.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Inquiries into the heart are not for man.
Samuel Johnson
Image
So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Be not too hasty to trust or to admire the teachers of morality they discourse like angels, but they live like men.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is our first duty to serve society.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Life protracted is protracted woe.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Friendship, compounded of esteem and love, derives from one its tenderness and its permanence from the other.
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
An epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature.
Samuel Johnson
Image
To a poet nothing can be useless.
Samuel Johnson
Image
To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude it is not retreat, but exclusion from mankind. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The perfect day for quitting is not real. It will never come, so might as well start today
Samuel Johnson
Image
Human reason borrowed many arts from the instinct of animals.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A newswriter is a man without virtue, who lies at home for his own profit.
Samuel Johnson