Samuel Johnson Quotes

To be a woman condemned to a wretched and disgraceful punishment is no impediment to beauty, but it is an insurmountable obstacle to power. Like all persons of real genius, her ladyship well knew what accorded with her nature and her means. Poverty disgusted her -subjection deprived her of two-thirds of her greatness. Her ladyship was only a queen amongst queens: the enjoyment of satisfied pride was essential to her sway. To command beings of an inferior nature, was, to her, rather a humiliation than a pleasure.

As Herman Melville wrote of that seagoing monster of a man Captain Ahab, “All mortal greatness is but disease.

Am I foolish and insignificant or am I great? I gave all the individuals in the world cause to kneel down in front of me.

Those who are believed to be most abject and humble are usually most ambitious and envious.

I like to think I am the best there is at what I do, and so I have conquered the world like Alexander. But I don't believe I am the reincarnation of Alexander the Great.

Let a man rise to power, and he has as many virtues as will furnish an epitaph. Let him fall from power, and he has more vices than the Prodigal Son.

What enables us to achieve our greatness contains the seeds of our destruction.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren't many people who can be put in high positions who won't start thinking highly of themselves.

Since the well-known victory over the hare by the tortoise, the descendants of the tortoise think themselves miracles of speed.

I’m Lila, and yes, he’s crazy. But you must have noticed that before now. He was crazy back when I knew him, and he’s obviously gotten crazier over time.

I think some people, when they get a certain ego, they lose sense of whatever.

There is no limit to the vanity of this world. Each spoke in the wheel thinks the whole strength of the wheel depends upon it.

The wise man thinks of fame just enough to avoid being despised.

Desire of greatness is a godlike sin.

And when your soul becometh great, then doth it become haughty, and in your sublimity there is wickedness.

When you are insane, you are busy being insane-all the time ... when I was crazy, that was all I was.

I have a particular dislike of human pride. And if you think that you can engineer outcomes, that's a manifestation of pride. Among other things, it's impractical. It just doesn't work. The world doesn't work that way.

An accession of wealth is a dangerous predicament for a man. At first he is stunned if the accession be sudden, and is very humble and very grateful. Then he begins to speak a little louder, people think him more sensible, and soon he thinks himself so.

I like France, where everybody thinks he's Napoleon--down here everybody thinks he's Christ.

You are grown so very great now, yet the higher a man climbs the farther he has to fall.

Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty, and supped with infamy.

The great man who thinks greatly of himself, is not diminishing that greatness in heaping fuel on his fire.

It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion

Of his new book, Don says: “It might be the greatest book ever written. I don’t think anybody is going to read a book again after they read my new one. I think God is proud of me. I am going to make a killing off this thing and I’m going to use the money to go to space.