Quote

So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.

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
Situation
Scarcely
Pleasure
Borrowed
Hours
Supported
Happiness
Pleasures
Future
Situations
Hope
Allowed
Scanty
Many
Hour
Allowance
Life
Present
Relieve

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Inquiries into the heart are not for man.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.
Samuel Johnson
Image
No one will persist long in helping someone who will not help themselves.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
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
...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Condemned to Hope's delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day, By sudden blasts or slow decline Our social comforts drop away.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Of riches it is not necessary to write the praise. Let it, however, be remembered that he who has money to spare has it always in his power to benefit others, and of such power a good man must always be desirous.
Samuel Johnson
Image
He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Stand Firm for your country, and become a man Honour'd and lov'd: It were a noble life, To be found dead, embracing her.
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
It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Life is but short no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The poor and the busy have no leisure for sentimental sorrow.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There are occasions on which all apology is rudeness.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.
Samuel Johnson