Quote

There is nothing so minute, or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.

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
Nothing
Would
Inconsiderable
Minute
Minutes
Rather

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

Image
We go from anticipation to anticipation, not from satisfaction to satisfaction.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Age is rarely despised but when it is, contemptible.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Misfortunes should always be expected.
Samuel Johnson
Image
There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.
Samuel Johnson
Image
A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind, but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Nobody can be taught faster than he can learn.
Samuel Johnson
Image
How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Samuel Johnson
Image
When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed forever.
Samuel Johnson
Image
I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Every old man complains of the growing depravity of the world, of the petulance and insolence of the rising generation.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
Samuel Johnson
Image
It is one of the maxims of the civil law, that definitions are hazardous.
Samuel Johnson
Image
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.
Samuel Johnson
Image
The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.
Samuel Johnson
Image
If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind but our primary consideration would be to take care of ourselves. We should knock him down first, and pity him afterwards.
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
Modern writers are the moons of literature they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
Samuel Johnson
Image
Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
Samuel Johnson