Samuel Johnson Zitate

seite 4

„Freundschaften sind wie alte Dächer, man muss sie ständig reparieren, damit sie halten.“

„Neugierde ist in grosszügigen Köpfen die erste Leidenschaft und die letzte.“

„Die Hölle ist mit guten Vorsätzen gepflastert.“

„Es gibt zwei Arten von Wissen. Wir wissen etwas selbst oder wir wissen, wo wir uns über etwas sachkundig machen können.“

„Wenn wir sehen, wie die Menschen altern und nach gewisser Zeit einer nach dem anderen sterben, Jahrhundert für Jahrhundert, dann können wir nur lachen über das Elixier, das die Verlängerung des Lebens auf über tausend Jahre verspricht; mit gleichem Recht ist der Lexikograph zu verspotten, der ohne das Beispiel einer Nation anführen zu können, die ihre Wörter und Ausdrücke vor Veränderlichkeit bewahrte, sich einbildet, sein Wörterbuch könne seine Sprache einbalsamieren, vor Verfälschung schützen und Verfall, und der meint, es stehe in seiner Macht, irdische Natur zu ändern oder die Welt mit einem Schlag von Verrücktheit, Eitelkeit und Affektiertheit zu befreien.“

„Eine Frau, die versucht zu predigen, ist wie ein Hund, der versucht, auf den Hinterbeinen zu laufen. Es klappt nicht gut, aber man ist überrascht, dass es überhaupt funktioniert.“

„Wenn jemand Londons überdrüssig ist, ist er des Lebens überdrüssig; denn in London hat man alles, was das Leben bieten kann.“

“Language is the dress of thought.”

“Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

“Your aspirations are your possibilities.”

“All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.”

“My nights are flatulent and unquiet.”

“Goldsmith, however, was a man who whatever he wrote, did it better than any other man could do.”

“Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.”

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

“I am willing to love all mankind, except an American.”

“PENSION — An allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.”

“A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it.”

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

“There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow; but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.”

“The world is not yet exhausted: let me see something to-morrow which I never saw before.”

“There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.”

“The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.”

“God bless you, my dear!”

“Norway, too, has noble wild prospects; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild prospects. But, Sir, let me tell you, the noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!”

“CLUB — An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.”

“How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!
Still to ourselves in every place consigned,
Our own felicity we make or find.
With secret course, which no loud storms annoy,
Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.”

“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 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.”

“OATS — A grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

“The Churchyard abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind, and with sentiments to which every bosom returns an echo.”

“There is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation.”

“Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.”

“When learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes
First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose;
Each change of many-colored life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new:
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting Time toiled after him in vain.”

“I [Boswell] happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place.
JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here."”

“A frame of adamant, a soul of fire,
No dangers fright him, and no labors tire.”