50 Best Samuel Johnson Quotes That Will Change Your Life

Introduction

Quotes have the power to condense great truths into a single line, to spark action, and to steady the spirit in moments of doubt. The best quotations cut through noise and offer clarity—use them for morning motivation, to reframe a challenge, to inspire a team, or to ground a reflective evening. Below are 50 memorable Samuel Johnson quotes organized by theme to uplift, motivate, and guide.

Motivational quotes

• "Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance." — Samuel Johnson
• "The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken." — Samuel Johnson
• "Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." — Samuel Johnson
• "Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last." — Samuel Johnson
• "What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure." — Samuel Johnson
• "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome." — Samuel Johnson
• "He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything." — Samuel Johnson
• "To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge." — Samuel Johnson
• "Let him that would move the world first move himself." — Samuel Johnson

Inspirational quotes

• "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." — Samuel Johnson
• "A good conscience is a continual Christmas." — Samuel Johnson
• "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition." — Samuel Johnson
• "Sincerity is the highest duty of all." — Samuel Johnson
• "Ambition is the last infirmity of noble minds." — Samuel Johnson
• "Language is the dress of thought." — Samuel Johnson
• "The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are." — Samuel Johnson
• "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man." — Samuel Johnson

Life wisdom quotes

• "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information on it." — Samuel Johnson
• "Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out." — Samuel Johnson
• "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." — Samuel Johnson
• "There are two ways of being wise: one is by reflection, the other by imitation." — Samuel Johnson
• "The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope." — Samuel Johnson
• "The art of life is to know how to enjoy a little and to endure much." — Samuel Johnson
• "To be a good talker you must feel yourself at ease in silence." — Samuel Johnson
• "To live long is sometimes to be pitied." — Samuel Johnson
• "Without a good reason, we should be slow to quarrel with our friends." — Samuel Johnson

Success quotes

• "The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it." — Samuel Johnson
• "Greatness of mind is shown by calmness, not by rapture." — Samuel Johnson
• "The secret of success is constancy to purpose." — Samuel Johnson
• "To start a quarrel is to break a friendship." — Samuel Johnson
• "The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading; in order to write, he must often read." — Samuel Johnson
• "Ambition should be made of sterner stuff than mere desire." — Samuel Johnson
• "A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority." — Samuel Johnson
• "No excellence without labor." — Samuel Johnson

Happiness quotes

• "To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition." — Samuel Johnson
• "A man in whom diversion succeeds to thought is a little less than a man." — Samuel Johnson
• "The true use of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." — Samuel Johnson
• "To enjoy the things we ought and to hate the things we ought has the greatest bearing on excellence of character." — Samuel Johnson
• "The pleasure of a good sermon is not in the sermon but in the conscience that receives it." — Samuel Johnson
• "The greatest part of what we say and do is unnecessary." — Samuel Johnson
• "Rejoice always; for the sense of life is to be happy." — Samuel Johnson
• "There is a delightful appetite for praise which does one good to gratify." — Samuel Johnson

Daily inspiration quotes

• "Read, and you will know; keep reading, and you will improve." — Samuel Johnson
• "May you live all the days of your life." — Samuel Johnson
• "The prospect of being hanged concentrates the mind wonderfully." — Samuel Johnson
• "The duty of comedy is to correct men by amusing them." — Samuel Johnson
• "The more I know of mankind, the more I prefer my dog." — Samuel Johnson
• "When a man is tired of life he is tired of himself, not of the world." — Samuel Johnson
• "A great part of our misery is in our own imaginations." — Samuel Johnson
• "Few men express themselves so clearly and so constant in their nature as to be entirely unknown to themselves." — Samuel Johnson

Conclusion

Samuel Johnson's lines are compact lessons: they remind us that persistence matters more than raw talent, that knowledge needs conscience, and that simple truths can steady a restless mind. Use these quotes as daily prompts—pin one by your desk, memorize one for hard days, or share one to spark conversation. Small phrases can shift thinking, steady action, and transform ordinary days into meaningful progress.