Samuel Johnson Quotes on Life (43 Quotes)

Every man has, some time in his life, an ambition to be a wag.

Nobody can write the life of a man but those who have eat and drunk and lived in social intercourse with him.

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

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.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into the short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

Life must be filled up, and the man who is not capable of intellectual pleasures must content himself with such as his senses can afford.

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar and many fold in their passage while they lie waiting for the gale.''

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.

Life is short. The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better.

God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise And motion.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

In the decline of life shame and grief are of short duration whether it be that we bear easily what we have borne long or that, finding ourselves in age less regarded, we less regard others or, that we look with slight regard upon afflictions to w

Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.

I have ever since (his wife's death) seemed to myself broken off from mankind a kind of solitary wanderer in the wild of life, without any direction, or fixed point of view a gloomy gazer on the world to which I have little relation

The whole of life is but keeping away the thoughts of death.

Health is so necessary to all the duties, as well as pleasures of life, that the crime of squandering it is equal to the folly.

There are multitudes whose life is nothing but a continuous lottery who are always within a few months of plenty and happiness, and how often soever they are mocked with blanks, expect a prize from the next adventure.

There is little peace or comfort in life if we are always anxious as to future events. He that worries himself with the dread of possible contingencies will never be at rest.

The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.

A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.

The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship

Love has no great influences upon the sum of life.

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rules of composition it produces vigilance rather than elevation rather prevents loss than procures advantage and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

The joy of life is variety the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.

Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.

I am sorry I have not learned to play at cards. It is very useful in life it generates kindness and consolidates society.