Samuel Johnson Quotes

We mock the things we are to be.

I'm in this absolutely gorgeous manor house with acres of quite beautiful countryside. I've got trout in the river, an organic vegetable garden, I've got my work 40 yards from my home. I don't mind being criticised, but where are they criticising from? Which hut are they criticising me from, exactly?

The purpose of satire has been rightly stated as to strip off the veneer of comforting illusion and cosy half truth, and our job, as I see it, is to put it back again!

It is difficult not to write satire.

Intolerance is a form of egotism, and to condemn egotism intolerantly is to share it.

You never know when you're going to be considered un-hip... The people that really pass judgment on you really have nothing to do with what you do, usually.

I don't know, and certainly I've been guilty of making a judgment about a celebrity, but there's a part of me that's like, 'Why don't you take the time you're spending ripping James Franco and go do something you like?'

They don't know they're living in a glass house.

One camel does not make fun of another camel's hump.

'The Puritan's idea of hell is a place where everybody has to mind his own business.

If you stick your head above the parapet and you have an opinion, and you spout family values and morality and all that, you'd be pretty naive to think that everybody would go, 'Oh, he's great, I love him.'

It's so uncommon to have a place where no one can call you.

First of all, I'm misunderstood in general. I don't mind because I'm very quiet, and I stay to myself. People are going to say what they want to say.

I started out making fun of comedy. Then I became the thing I was making fun of.

Life's about ego. So for someone to talk about my ego, as they are writing their piece about my ego, I'm wondering what they're doing with their ego?

People ridicule you for the silliest thing, like what you wore to an event. At the end of the day, I'm just being me - if that's not good enough for you, tell me what is. Usually people don't have an answer.

My dear friend, we mustn't give them even the slightest excuse to judge us! Otherwise, we end up in pieces.

Once you have people around you who don't question you, you're in a dangerous place.

Everyone praises his heart, none dare praise their understanding.

Most of the ladies and gentlemen who mourn the passing of the nation's leaders wouldn't know a leader if they saw one. If they had the bad luck to come across a leader, they would find out that he might demand something from them, and this impertinence would put an abrupt and indignant end to their wish for his return.

Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy...He who is alone with his sins is utterly alone.

Are you not accustomed to look at home, when you abuse others?

People hasten to judge in order not to be judged themselves.

If I'm a cruel satirist at least I'm not a hyprocrite: I never judge what other people do. Neither a politician nor a priest, I never censor what others do. Neither a philospher nor a psychiatrist, I never bother trying to analyze or resolve my fears and neuroses.

I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.