Frases de Samuel Johnson

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“El que hace una bestia de sí mismo se deshace del dolor de ser hombre.”

“La curiosidad es una de las más permanentes y seguras características de una vigorosa inteligencia.”

“Nuestros deseos siempre se aumentan con nuestras posesiones. El conocimiento de que hay algo todavía que nos pueda satisfacer, no se puede comparar con el gozo de las cosas que tenemos por delante.”

“Señor, he encontrado un razonamiento idóneo para usted, pero no me considero en la obligación de encontrarle también un sensato entendimiento.”

“Ningún hombre será marinero si encuentra alguna manera de que lo envíen a prisión, pues estar en un barco es como estar en una cárcel, pero con el riesgo añadido de morir ahogado.”

“La prudencia da seguridad a la vida, pero pocas veces la hace dichosa.”

“La vida es un viaje de carencia en carencia, no de gozo en gozo.”

“La fuente de la alegría debe brotar en la mente, y quien conozca tan poco la naturaleza humana como para buscar la felicidad en cualquier cosa que no sea su propia disposición, malgastará su vida en esfuerzos infructuosos y multiplicará las aflicciones que se propone suprimir.”

“El que aguarda para hacer mucho de una sola vez, nunca hará nada.”

“Casarse por segunda vez es el triunfo de la esperanza sobre la experiencia.”

“En su vuelo natural el espíritu humano no va de placer en placer, sino de esperanza en esperanza.”

“Es necesario esperar, aunque la esperanza haya de verse siempre frustrada, pues la esperanza misma constituye una dicha, y sus fracasos, por frecuentes que sean, son menos horribles que su extinción.”

“No tienes que comerte toda la res para saber que es dura.”

“Que la gente vulgar exprese sus ideas con claridad está lejos de ser cierto, y cuando lo hace no se debe a su facilidad de expresión, sino a la superficialidad de sus ideas.”

“Se puede tener por compañera la fantasía, pero se debe tener como guía a la razón.”

“Conforme sé más de la humanidad, espero menos de ella, y ahora estoy dispuesto a decir que un hombre es bueno con menor exigencia de la que antes habría impuesto.”

“Nunca he conocido a un disidente capaz de razonar.”

“¿Señor, tanto desconoce usted la naturaleza humana como para ignorar que un hombre bien puede ser muy sincero en buenos principios sin que por ello los lleve nunca a la práctica?”

“El mundo aún no se ha agotado del todo: dejadme ver algo mañana que aún no haya visto hoy.”

“AVENA, sust.: Cereal que en Inglaterra sirve de alimento a los caballos, pero del que en Escocia se alimentan las personas.”

“Es comúnmente observado, que cuando dos ingleses se encuentran, de lo primero que hablan es sobre el tiempo; están impacientes por decir al otro lo que ambos deben ya saber, que hace calor o frío, que está soleado o nublado, ventoso o calmado.”

“Las cadenas de un hábito no se sienten; las adquirimos con mucha facilidad, más después nos cuesta mucho romperlas.”

“Ninguno, imitando a otros, llegó a ser auténticamente grande… y dejó de ser él.”

“Tenga lo que tenga, gaste menos.”

“Podré ser conquistado, pero no capitularé.”

“Aquél que alaba a todo el mundo no alaba a nadie.”

“A las personas más a menudo hay que recordarles que informarles.”

“El conocimiento puede ser de dos especies: o bien conocemos un tema nosotros mismos, o bien sabemos donde encontrar información sobre él.”

“Es mejor vivir rico que morir siéndolo.”

“Si estás solo, no estés desocupado; si estás desocupado, no estés solo.”

“Es raro que haya tan pocos lectores en este mundo, pero tantas lecturas. La gente en general no lee por propia voluntad si son capaces de encontrar cualquier otra cosa que los entretenga.”

“De todos los ruidos, creo que la música es el menos desagradable.”

“Una mosca, señor, puede picar a un caballo majestuoso y hacerlo estremecerse de dolor; pero la primera seguirá siendo nada más que un insecto, y el segundo, empero, un caballo.”

“Los diccionarios son como los relojes: el peor es mejor que ninguno, pero del mejor uno no puede esperar que sea del todo preciso.”

“Hay pocas cosas que resulten imposibles de la mano de la paciencia y de la diligencia.”

“Los ejemplos tienen más fuerza que los preceptos.”

“Patrocinador: Alguien que tolera, apoya o protege a otros. Usualmente, un desgraciado que apoya con insolencia, y es pagado con adulación.”

“Ser necio de nacimiento es una enfermedad incurable.”

“[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.”

“It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.”

“The unjustifiable severity of a parent is loaded with this aggravation, that those whom he injures are always in his sight.”

“A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.”

“From Thee, great God: we spring, to Thee we tend,
Path, motive, guide, original, and end.”

“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.”

“[Imlac continues] "It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter, or that every particle is a thinking being. Yet, if any part of matter be devoid of thought, what part can we suppose to think? Matter can differ from matter only in form, density, bulk, motion, and direction of motion: to which of these, however varied or combined, can consciousness be annexed? To be round or square, to be solid or fluid, to be great or little, to be moved slowly or swiftly one way or another, are modes of material existence, all equally alien from the nature of cogitation. If matter be once without thought, it can only be made to think by some new modification, but all the modifications which it can admit are equally unconnected with cogitative powers."”

“He that thinks himself capable of astonishing may write blank verse: but those that hope only to please must condescend to rhyme.”

“If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim.”

“I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.”

“A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian,
Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched,
And touched nothing that he did not adorn.”

“I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a man who is zealous for nothing."… There was another fine passage too which he struck out: "When I was a young man, being anxious to distinguish myself, I was perpetually starting new propositions. But I soon gave this over; for I found that generally what was new was false."”

“Frugality may be termed the daughter of Prudence, the sister of Temperance and the parent of Liberty.”

“Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,
For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.”

“Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.”

“A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.”

“The richest author that ever grazed the common of literature.”

“We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.”

“No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.”

“I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.”

“I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; — one, that I have lost all the names, — the other, that I have spent all the money.”

“Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.”

“Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances, reciprocate civilities, go home, and dream of one another. Having little to divert attention, or diversify thought, they find themselves uneasy when they are apart, and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together. They marry, and discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed; they wear out life in altercations, and charge nature with cruelty.”

“How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”

“A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say.”

“I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.”

“Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get.”

“Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove
The pangs of guilty power and hapless love!
Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more;
Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before;
Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine,
Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!”

“To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.”