Samuel Johnson Quotes

To be satisfied with the acquittal of the world, though accompanied with the secret condemnation of conscience, this is the mark of a little mind; but it requires a soul of no common stamp to be satisfied with its own acquittal, and to despise the condemnation of the world.

The real compensation of a right action is inherent in having performed it.

I don't get tired of hearing that somebody liked my work.

I want to feel good, I want to feel proud, I want to feel that I give someone enough and that I get enough.

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

I think when you're doing good work, you don't necessarily need to be validated.

People are appreciating my work, and it feels good when people like my work.

I don't need others to validate my good conduct.

I feel great when people say good things about me. But what's important is that I have to show it on the pitch.

No actor is a success unless he feels inside himself, as long as he lives, that he is good.

When you can be your own best audience and when your applause is the best applause you know of, youre in good shape.

Honor is self-esteem made visible in action.

We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that.

A good character is the only guarantee of everlasting, carefree happiness.

My father has this expression that you have to be able to look yourself in the eyes in the mirror, you know, and know that you're a good person. If that's true and you feel good about yourself then that's all that matters no matter what other people's perceptions are.

To be good and disagreeable is high treason against the royalty of virtue.

The glory of the good is in their consciences, and not in the tongues of men.

For I consider the character of no man affected by a want of success, provided he has made an honest effort to succeed.

Nothing of character is really permanent but virtue and personal worth.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.

The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!

A man can bear a world's contempt when he has that within which says he's worthy. When he contemns himself, there burns the hell.

The extra opinions and the extra praise is just a bonus, it's not the main thing. The main thing is how I feel about myself. And I feel really good about myself.

It's impossible to feel good about yourself if you are doing things that you aren't proud of. . . . It's essential that you . . . [do] things you can respect and admire.