Samuel Johnson Quotes on Man (107 Quotes)

This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.

A very unclubable man.

Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate, Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate.

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

On Sir Joshua Reynoldss observing that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Yes, Sir, no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.

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.

Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.

Shame arises from the fear of man conscience from the fear of God.

Sir, are you so grossly ignorant of human nature, as not to know that a man may be very sincere in good principles, without having good practice.

Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

Illness makes a man a scoundrel.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly.

When once a man has made celebrity necessary to his happiness, he has put it in the power of the weakest and most timorous malignity, if not to take away his satisfaction, at least to withhold it. His enemies may indulge their pride by airy negligence and gratify their malice by quiet neutrality.

No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.

Men do not suspect faults which they do not commit.

If a man were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed, to shun a shower, he would say - 'this is an extraordinary man.'

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.

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

To us, who are regaled every morning and evening with intelligence, and are supplied from day to day with materials for conversation, it is difficult to conceive how man can consist without a newspaper, or to what entertainment companies can assemble

A mere literary man is a dull man a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies,'Tis a proof that he had rather; Have a turnip than his father.

Pity is not natural to man. Children and savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity but we have not pity unless we wish to relieve him.

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.

Keeping accounts, Sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today, because you have written down what it cost yesterday.

To proceed from one truth to another, and connect distant propositions by regular consequences, is the great prerogative of man

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help The notice which you have been pleased to take care of my labors, had it been early, had been kind but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it till I am solitary, and cannot impart it till I am known, and do not want it.

Such is the constitution of man that labor may be styled its own reward nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body

Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child's rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man's whore.

Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Wine makes a man better pleased with himself I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others.

Get together a hundred or two men, however sensible they may be, and you are very likely to have a mob.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.

Men seldom give pleasure where they are not pleased themselves.

Were it not for imagination, Sir, a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a Duchess.

There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.

Man is not weak knowledge is more than equivalent to force.

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

Scarce any man becomes eminently disagreeable but by a departure from his real character, and an attempt at something for which nature or education has left him unqualified

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.

In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.

Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.