The Rambler Quotes

“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for, however absurd it may be thought to boast an honour by an act which shows that it was conferred without merit, yet most men seem rather inclined to confess the want of virtue than of importance.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler: In Four Volumes

“It has been observed that physicians and lawyers are no friends to religion;”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Converse with almost any man, grown old in a profession, and you will find him regretting that he did not enter into some different course, to which he too late finds his genius better adapted, or in which he discovers that wealth and honour are more easily attained.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Rambler

“There are men who always confound the praise of goodness with the practice, and who believe themselves mild and moderate, charitable and faithful, because they have exerted their eloquence in commendation of mildness, fidelity, and other virtues.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“who has money in his pocket need not care what any man says of him;”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler

“A transition from an author’s book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.”
― Samuel Johnson, The Rambler