“El patriotismo es el último refugio de los canallas.”
Variante: El patriotismo es el último refugio de los canallas".
Samuel Johnson:
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Frases célebres de Samuel Johnson
Frases de vida de Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson Frases y Citas
The Idler, nº 11 (24 de junio de 1758).
Fuente: En gutenberg.org http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12050
Variante de la traducción: «Las diminutas cadenas de los hábitos son generalmente demasiado pequeñas para sentirlas, hasta que llegan a ser demasiado fuertes para romperlas».
“Ser necio de nacimiento es una enfermedad incurable.”
Atribución dudosa: En el Dicc. de citas de Luis Señor, aparece atribuida a Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Fuente: "Frases célebres de hombres célebres" https://books.google.es/books?id=3qJPAAAAMAAJ&q=%C2%ABSer+necio+de+nacimiento+es+una+enfermedad+incurable%C2%BB.&dq=%C2%ABSer+necio+de+nacimiento+es+una+enfermedad+incurable%C2%BB.&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimyuPdlMbiAhWFyqQKHY3VBA8Q6AEILjAB Compilado por Manuel Pumarega. Editorial México, 1949 (3ª ed.); página 320.
Fuente: [Señor] (1997), p. 423
Samuel Johnson: Frases en inglés
The Patriot (1774)
Contexto: It ought to be deeply impressed on the minds of all who have voices in this national deliberation, that no man can deserve a seat in parliament, who is not a patriot. No other man will protect our rights: no other man can merit our confidence.
A patriot is he whose publick conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent in parliament, has, for himself, neither hope nor fear, neither kindness nor resentment, but refers every thing to the common interest.
Samuel Johnson
libro
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Fuente: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 31
Contexto: “That the dead are seen no more,” said Imlac, “I will not undertake to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth: those that never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence, and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears.
“Yet I do not mean to add new terrors to those which have already seized upon Pekuah. There can be no reason why spectres should haunt the Pyramid more than other places, or why they should have power or will to hurt innocence and purity. Our entrance is no violation of their privileges: we can take nothing from them; how, then, can we offend them?”
Samuel Johnson
libro
A Dictionary of the English Language
Preface http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/preface.html
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Contexto: It is the fate of those, who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries, whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.
Samuel Johnson
The Rambler
No. 43 (14 August 1750) http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=Joh1Ram.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=43&division=div1
The Rambler (1750–1752)
Contexto: All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance: it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the effect of a single stroke of the pick-axe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded, by the slender force of human beings.
It is therefore of the utmost importance that those, who have any intention of deviating from the beaten roads of life, and acquiring a reputation superior to names hourly swept away by time among the refuse of fame, should add to their reason, and their spirit, the power of persisting in their purposes; acquire the art of sapping what they cannot batter, and the habit of vanquishing obstinate resistance by obstinate attacks.
Letter to James Macpherson, 20 June 1778. (Quotation used as epigram to Władysław Tatarkiewicz, "Dwa pojęcia poezji" ("Two Concepts of Poetry"), in Tatarkiewicz's book, Parerga, Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1978, pp. 20–38.)
Letters to and from Dr. Samuel Johnson
“Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.”
The Tragedy of Irene (1749), Act III, Sc. 2
Contexto: To-morrow's action! Can that hoary wisdom,
Borne down with years, still doat upon tomorrow!
That fatal mistress of the young, the lazy,
The coward, and the fool, condemn'd to lose
A useless life in waiting for to-morrow,
To gaze with longing eyes upon to-morrow,
Till interposing death destroys the prospect
Strange! that this general fraud from day to day
Should fill the world with wretches undetected.
The soldier, labouring through a winter's march,
Still sees to-morrow drest in robes of triumph;
Still to the lover's long-expecting arms
To-morrow brings the visionary bride.
But thou, too old to hear another cheat,
Learn, that the present hour alone is man's.
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
Actually said by Giuseppe Baretti, February 13, 1766. The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page http://www.samueljohnson.com/apocryph.html#19, retrieved 24 October 2018
Misattributed
Fuente: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
First attributed to Johnson 15 years posthumously in a footnote in William Seward's Biographiana (1799), but written in slightly different form in 1764, in a profile in The Scots Magazine of Charles Churchill. The Scots Magazine, Volume 26 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=y14AAAAAYAAJ&q=%22without+effort%22&redir_esc=y&hl=en#v=snippet&q=%22without%20effort%22&f=false
Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/11/08/without-effort/, retrieved 17 May 2016
Misattributed
Fuente: Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II
September 20, 1777, p. 356
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Fuente: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 3
“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
Samuel Johnson
The Rambler
No. 103 (12 March 1751)
Variante: Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
Fuente: The Rambler (1750–1752)
"Many people believe Samuel Johnson said it, but no one seems to have found it anywhere in his works or letters, or, for that matter any of the biographies of him by his contemporaries. I'm basing that on what's been included in Primary Source Media's CD-ROM of Johnson and Boswell. The CD-ROM includes all of Johnson's writings in the canon, Boswell's Life of Johnson and Tour of the Hebrides, as well as accounts from Hester Thrale, Sir John Hawkins, Fanny Burney, plus O.M. Brack's 'Early Biographies.' In short, practically nothing from the 18th Century has been left out. In addition, I've also consulted 'The Beauties of Johnson,' an 18th Century collection of Johnson quotations."
“Your manuscript is both good and original. …” http://www.samueljohnson.com/goodorig.html at The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page http://www.samueljohnson.com/ Retrieved 2013-07-07
Misattributed
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
April 7, 1775, p. 253
Boswell's full mention of this statement reads:
:Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apophthegm, at which many will start: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." But let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
Quoted in the "Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections" of Sir John Hawkins (1787-1789) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 6, edited by George Birkbeck Hill
Fuente: Johnsonian Miscellanies - Vol II
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.”
Samuel Johnson
libro
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Fuente: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 12
March 26, 1779
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
Samuel Johnson
libro
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Fuente: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 41
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
Samuel Johnson
The Rambler
No. 135 (2 July 1751)
Fuente: The Rambler (1750–1752)
“Hell is paved with good intentions.”
April 14, 1775
Malone added a footnote indicating this is a "proverbial sentence", quoting an earlier 1651 source. At least two other sources appear prior to Johnson. John Ray, in 1670, cited as a proverb, "Hell is paved with good intentions." Even earlier than that, it has been attributed to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1091-1153), as "Hell is full of good intentions or desires."
[alt.quotations, Earlier Attributions, Wilson, Robert, UseNet, 2009-01-06]
Note that "The road to Hell…" is not part of the quotation.
The Samuel Johnson web site suggests this entry is dated 16 April, but it appears to be part of the previous entry.
Samuel Johnson web site http://www.samueljohnson.com/road.html
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Fuente: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2
April 6, 1775
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
Fuente: The Life of Samuel Johnson LL.D. Vol 2
“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.”
Fuente: The Life Of Samuel Johnson, Vol. 4
April 18, 1775, p. 258
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
“Nothing … will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”
Samuel Johnson
libro
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Fuente: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 6
