Samuel Johnson Quotes

What is character? It is that quality of man which is going to make a man, in an hour of strain, do the just and, if possible, the generous thing.

It is part of a good man to do great and noble deeds, though he risk everything.

The first requisite of a gentleman is to be true, brave and noble, and to be therefore a rebuke and scandal to venal and vulgar souls.

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue.

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful.

In the end, I'll put my good acts up against those of anybody in this country. Anybody.

People do not always understand the motives of sublime conduct, and when they are astonished they are very apt to think they ought to be alarmed. The truth is none are fit judges of greatness but those who are capable of it.

Tis not what man Does which exalts him, but what man Would do!

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

There's nothing so kingly as kindness, and nothing so royal as truth.

Wicked people are always surprised to find ability in those that are good.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

Virtue is the fount whence honour springs.

Perfect Valor is to do, without a witness, all that we could do before the whole world.

I could not love thee, dear, so much, loved I not honor more.

True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolve of virtue and reason.

Virtue has its own reward, but no sale at the box office.

Reason perhaps teaches certain bourgeois virtues, but it does not make either heroes or saints.

We value virtue but do not discuss it. The honest bookkeeper, the faithful wife, the earnest scholar get little of our attention compared to the embezzler, the tramp, the cheat.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public men.

It is of little traits that the greatest human character is composed.

When were the good and the brave ever in a majority?

Truth is handsomer than the affectation of love. Your goodness must have some edge to it, else it is none.

I'm simply saying that heroes are people whose activities, whose attitudes, and whose judgment you just think, 'Wow. That's good. That's right. That's real.'

Perfect valour consists in doing without witnesses that which we would be capable of doing before everyone.