Samuel Johnson Quotes on Society
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This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confessed - Slow rises worth, by poverty depressed.
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There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.
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Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays, For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.
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There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed.
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The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
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[Of Lord Chesterfield] This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but, I find, he is only a wit among Lords!
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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.
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Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
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Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.
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The insolence of wealth will creep out.
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Were it not for imagination, Sir, a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a Duchess.