Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  PLEASING. ‘We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody,’ ii. 22.

  PLEASURE. ‘Every pleasure is of itself a good,’ iii. 327;

  ’Pleasure is too weak for them and they seek for pain,’ iii. 176;

  ’When one doubts as to pleasure, we know what will be the conclusion,’

  iii. 250;

  ’When pleasure can be had it is fit to catch it,’ iii. 131.

  Plenum. ‘There are objections against a plenum and objections against a vacuum; yet one of them must certainly be true,’ i. 444.

  PLUME. ‘This, Sir, is a new plume to him,’ ii. 210.

  POCKET. ‘I should as soon have thought of picking a pocket,’ v. 145.

  POCKETS. See above under IMMORTALITY.

  POETRY. ‘I could as easily apply to law as to tragic poetry,’ v. 35;

  ’There is here a great deal of what is called poetry,’ iii. 374.

  POINT. ‘Whenever I write anything the public make a point to know nothing about it’ (Goldsmith), iii. 252.

  POLES. ‘If all this had happened to me, I should have had a couple of fellows with long poles walking before me, to knock down everybody that stood in the way,’ iii. 264.

  POLITENESS. ‘Politeness is fictitious benevolence,’ v. 82.

  POOR. ‘A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization,’ ii. 130; ‘Resolve never to be poor,’ iv. 163.

  PORT. ‘It is rowing without a port,’ iii. 255.

  See CLARET.

  POST. ‘Sir, I found I must have gilded a rotten post,’ i. 266, n. 1.

  POSTS. ‘If you have the best posts we will have you tied to them and whipped,’ v. 292.

  POUND. ‘Pound St. Paul’s Church into atoms and consider any single atom; it is to be sure good for nothing; but put all these atoms together, and you have St. Paul’s Church,’ i. 440.

  POVERTY. ‘When I was running about this town a very poor fellow,

  I was a great arguer for the advantages of poverty,’ i. 441.

  POWER. ‘I sell here, Sir, what all the world desires to have — Power’

  (Boulton), ii. 459.

  PRACTICE. ‘He does not wear out his principles in practice’

  (Beauclerk), iii. 282.

  PRAISE. ‘All censure of a man’s self is oblique praise,’ iii. 323;

  ’I know nobody who blasts by praise as you do,’ iv. 8l;

  ’Praise and money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind,’ iv. 242;

  ’There is no sport in mere praise, when people are all of a mind,’

  v. 273.

  PRAISES. ‘He who praises everybody praises nobody,’ iii. 225, n. 3.

  PRANCE. ‘Sir, if a man has a mind to prance he must study at

  Christ Church and All Souls,’ ii. 67, n. 2.

  PRECEDENCY. See above, FLEA.

  PRE-EMINENCE. ‘Painful pre-eminence’ (Addison), iii. 82, n. 2.

  PREJUDICE. ‘He set out with a prejudice against prejudices,’ ii. 51.

  PRESENCE. ‘Never speak of a man in his own presence. It is always indelicate, and may be offensive,’ ii. 472; ‘Sir, I honour Derrick for his presence of mind,’ i. 457.

  PRIG. ‘Harris is a prig, and a bad prig,’ iii. 245;

  ’What! a prig, Sir?’ ‘Worse, Madam, a Whig. But he is both,’ iii. 294.

  PRINCIPLES. ‘Sir, you are so grossly ignorant of human nature as not to know, that a man may be very sincere in good principles without having good practice,’ v. 359.

  PROBABILITIES. ‘Balancing probabilities,’ iv. 12.

  PRODIGALITY. See above, PARSIMONY.

  PROFESSION. ‘No man would be of any profession as simply opposed to not being of it,’ ii. 128.

  PROPAGATE. ‘I would advise no man to marry, Sir, who is not likely to propagate understanding,’ ii. 109, n. 2.

  PROPORTION. ‘It is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them,’ ii. 12.

  PROSPECTS. ‘Norway, too, has noble wild prospects,’ i. 425.

  PROSPERITY. ‘Sir, you see in him vulgar prosperity,’ iii. 410.

  PROVE. ‘How will you prove that, Sir?’ i. 410, n. 2.

  PROVERB. ‘A man should take care not to be made a proverb,’ iii. 57.

  PRY. ‘He may still see, though he may not pry,’ iii. 61.

  PUBLIC. ‘Sir, he is one of the many who have made themselves public without making themselves known,’ i. 498.

  PUDDING. ‘Yet if he should be hanged, none of them will eat a slice of plum-pudding the less,’ ii. 94.

  Puérilités. ‘Il y a beaucoup de puérilités dans la guerre,’ iii. 355.

  PURPOSES. ‘The mind is enlarged and elevated by mere purposes,’ iv. 396, n. 4.

  PUTRESCENCE. ‘You would not have me for fear of pain perish in putrescence,’ iv. 240, n. 1.

  Q.

  Quare. ‘A writ of quare adhaesit pavimento’ (wags of the Northern Circuit), iii. 261, n. 2.

  QUARREL. ‘Perhaps the less we quarrel, the more we hate,’ iii. 417, n. 5.

  QUARRELS. ‘Men will be sometimes surprised into quarrels,’ iii. 277, n. 2.

  QUESTIONING. ‘Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen,’ ii. 472.

  QUIET. ‘Your primary consideration is your own quiet,’ iii. 11.

  QUIVER. ‘The limbs will quiver and move when the soul is gone,’ iii. 38, n. 6.

  R.

  RAGE. ‘He has a rage for saying something where there is nothing to be said,’ i. 329.

  RAGS. ‘Rags, Sir, will always make their appearance where they have a right to do it,’ iv. 312.

  RAINED. ‘If it rained knowledge I’d hold out my hand,’ iii. 344.

  RASCAL. ‘I’d throw such a rascal into the river,’ i. 469;

  ’With a little more spoiling you will, I think, make me a complete

  rascal,’ iii. 1;

  ’Don’t be afraid, Sir, you will soon make a very pretty rascal,’

  iv. 200;

  ’Every man of any education would rather be called a rascal than

  accused of deficiency in the graces,’ iii. 54.

  RASCALS. ‘Sir, there are rascals in all countries,’ iii. 326.

  RATIONALITY. ‘An obstinate rationality prevents me,’ iv. 289.

  RATTLE. ‘The lad does not care for the child’s rattle,’ ii. 14.

  READ. ‘We must read what the world reads at the moment,’ iii. 332.

  REAR. ‘Sir, I can make him rear,’ iv. 28.

  REASON. ‘You may have a reason why two and two should make five, but they will still make but four,’ iii. 375.

  REBELLION. ‘All rebellion is natural to man,’ v. 394.

  RECIPROCATE. ‘Madam, let us reciprocate,’ iii. 408.

  RECONCILED. ‘Beware of a reconciled enemy’ (Italian proverb), iii. 108.

  REDDENING. ‘It is better she should be reddening her own cheeks than blackening other people’s characters,’ iii. 46.

  REFORM. ‘It is difficult to reform a household gradually,’ iii. 362.

  RELIGION. ‘I am no friend to making religion appear too hard,’ v. 316;

  ’Religion scorns a foe like thee’ (Epigram), iv. 288.

  RENT. ‘Amendments are seldom made without some token of a rent,’ iv. 38.

  REPAID. ‘Boswell, lend me sixpence — not to be repaid,’ iv. 191.

  REPAIRS. ‘There is a time of life, Sir, when a man requires the repairs of a table,’ i. 470, n. 2.

  REPEATING. ‘I know nothing more offensive than repeating what one knows to be foolish things, by way of continuing a dispute, to see what a man will answer,’ iii. 350.

  REPUTATION. ‘Jonas acquired some reputation by travelling abroad, but lost it all by travelling at home,’ ii. 122.

  RESENTMENT. ‘Resentment gratifies him who intended an injury,’ iv. 367.

  RESPECTED. ‘Sir, I never before knew how much I was respected by these gentlemen; they told me none of these things,’ iii. 8.

  REVIEWERS. ‘Set Reviewers at defiance,’ v. 274
;

  ’The Reviewers will make him hang himself,’ iii. 313.

  RICH. ‘It is better to live rich than to die rich,’ iii. 304.

  RIDICULE. ‘Ridicule has gone down before him,’ i. 394;

  ’Ridicule is not your talent,’ iv. 335.

  RIDICULOUS. See CHIMNEY.

  RIGHT. ‘Because a man cannot be right in all things, is he to be right in nothing?’ iii. 410; ‘It seems strange that a man should see so far to the right who sees so short a way to the left,’ iv. 19.

  RISING. ‘I am glad to find that the man is rising in the world,’ ii. 155, n. 2.

  ROCK. ‘It is like throwing peas against a rock,’ v. 30;

  ’Madam, were they in Asia I would not leave the rock,’ v. 223.

  ROCKS. ‘If anything rocks at all, they say it rocks like a cradle,’ iii. 136.

  ROPE-DANCING. ‘Let him take a course of chemistry, or a course of rope-dancing,’ ii. 440.

  ROTTEN. ‘Depend upon it, Sir, he who does what he is afraid should be known has something rotten about him,’ ii. 210; ‘Then your rotten sheep are mine,’ v. 50.

  ROUND. ‘Round numbers are always false,’ iii. 226, n. 4.

  RUFFIAN. ‘I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat by the menaces of a ruffian,’ ii. 298.

  RUFFLE. ‘If a mere wish could attain it, a man would rather wish to be able to hem a ruffle,’ ii. 357.

  RUFFLES. ‘Ancient ruffles and modern principles do not agree,’ iv. 81.

  RUINING. ‘He is ruining himself without pleasure,’ iii. 348.

  RUNTS. ‘Mr. Johnson would learn to talk of runts’ (Mrs. Salusbury), iii. 337.

  S.

  SAILOR. ‘No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a gaol,’ v. 137.

  SAT. ‘Yes, Sir, if he sat next you,’ ii. 193.

  SAVAGE. ‘You talk the language of a savage,’ ii. 130.

  SAVAGES. ‘One set of savages is like another,’ iv. 308.

  SAY. ‘The man is always willing to say what he has to say,’ iii. 307.

  SCARLET BREECHES. ‘It has been a fashion to wear scarlet breeches; these men would tell you that, according to causes and effects, no other wear could at that time have been chosen,’ iv. 189.

  SCHEME. ‘Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment,’ i. 331, n. 5.

  SCHEMES. ‘It sometimes happens that men entangle themselves in their own schemes,’ iii. 386; ‘Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things,’ ii. 102.

  SCHOOLBOY. ‘A schoolboy’s exercise may be a pretty thing for a schoolboy, but it is no treat for a man,’ ii. 127.

  SCHOOLMASTER. ‘You may as well praise a schoolmaster for whipping a boy who has construed ill,’ ii. 88.

  SCOTCH. ‘I’d rather have you whistle a Scotch tune,’ iv. 111;

  ’Scotch conspiracy in national falsehood,’ ii. 297;

  ’Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that Old England is lost

  as that the Scotch have found it,’ iii. 78;

  ’Why, Sir, all barrenness is comparative. The Scotch would not

  know it to be barren,’ iii. 76.

  SCOTCHMAN. ‘Come, gentlemen, let us candidly admit that there is one Scotchman who is cheerful,’ iii. 387; ‘Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy,’ v. 346; ‘He left half a crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death,’ i. 268; ‘Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young,’ ii. 194; ‘One Scotchman is as good as another,’ iv. 101; ‘The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England,’ i. 425; v. 387; ‘Though the dog is a Scotchman and a Presbyterian, and everything he should not be,’ &c., iv. 98; ‘Why, Sir, I should not have said of Buchanan, had he been an Englishman, what I will now say of him as a Scotchman, — that he was the only man of genius his country ever produced,’ iv. 185; ‘You would not have been so valuable as you are had you not been a Scotchman,’ iii. 347.

  SCOTCHMEN. ‘Droves of Scotchmen would come up and attest anything for the honour of Scotland,’ ii. 311; ‘I shall suppose Scotchmen made necessarily, and Englishmen by choice,’ v. 48; ‘It was remarked of Mallet that he was the only Scot whom Scotchmen did not commend,’ ii. 159, n. 3; ‘We have an inundation of Scotchmen’ (Wilkes), iv. 101.

  SCOTLAND. ‘A Scotchman must be a very sturdy moralist who does not

  love Scotland better than truth,’ ii. 311, n. 4; v. 389, n. 1;

  ’Describe the inn, Sir? Why, it was so bad that Boswell wished to

  be in Scotland,’ iii. 51;

  ’If one man in Scotland gets possession of two thousand pounds,

  what remains for all the rest of the nation?’ iv. 101;

  ’Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to horses,

  but in Scotland supports the people,’ i. 294, n. 8;

  ’Seeing Scotland, Madam, is only seeing a worse England,’ iii. 248;

  ’Sir, you have desert enough in Scotland,’ ii. 75;

  ’Things which grow wild here must be cultivated with great care in

  Scotland. Pray, now, are you ever able to bring the sloe to perfection?’

  ii. 77;

  ’Why so is Scotland your native place,’ ii. 52.

  SCOUNDREL. ‘Fludyer turned out a scoundrel, a Whig,’ ii. 444;

  ’I told her she was a scoundrel’ (a carpenter), ii. 456, n. 3;

  ’Ready to become a scoundrel, Madam,’ iii. 1;

  ’Sir, he was a scoundrel and coward,’ i. 268.

  SCREEN. ‘He stood as a screen between me and death’ (Swift), iii. 441, n. 3.

  SCRIBBLING. ‘The worst way of being intimate is by scribbling,’ v. 93.

  SCRUPLES. ‘Whoever loads life with unnecessary scruples,’ &c., ii. 72, n. 1.

  SEE. ‘Let us endeavour to see things as they are,’ i. 339.

  Semel Baro semper Baro (Boswell), i. 492, n. 1.

  SEND. ‘Nay, Sir; we’ll send you to him,’ iii. 315.

  SENSATION. ‘Sensation is sensation,’ v. 95.

  SENSE. ‘He grasps more sense than he can hold,’ iv. 98: ‘Nay, Sir, it was not the wine that made your head ache, but the sense that I put into it,’ iii. 381.

  SERENITY. ‘The serenity that is not felt it can be no virtue to feign,’ iv. 395.

  SEVERITY. ‘Severity is not the way to govern either boys or men’

  (Lord Mansfield), ii. 186.

  SHADOWY. ‘Why, Sir, something of a shadowy being,’ ii. 178.

  SHALLOWS. ‘All shallows are clear,’ v. 44, n. 3.

  SHERRY. ‘Why, Sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull; but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature,’ i. 453.

  SHIFT. ‘As long as you have the use of your tongue and your pen, never, Sir, be reduced to that shift,’ iv. 190, n. 2.

  SHINE. ‘You shine, indeed, but it is by being ground,’ iii. 386.

  SHIP. Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned,’ i. 348; v. 137; ‘It is getting on horseback in a ship’ (Hierocles), v. 308.

  SHIRT. ‘It is like a shirt made for a man when he was a child and enlarged always as he grows older,’ v. 217.

  SHIVER. ‘Why do you shiver?’ i. 462.

  SHOE. ‘Had the girl in The Mourning Bride said she could not cast her shoe to the top of one of the pillars in the temple, it would not have aided the idea, but weakened it,’ ii. 87.

  SHOEMAKER. ‘As I take my shoes from the shoemaker and my coat from the tailor, so I take my religion from the priest’ (Goldsmith), ii. 214.

  SHOES. ‘Mankind could do better without your books than without my shoes,’ i. 448.

  SHOOT. ‘You do not see one man shoot a great deal higher than another,’

  ii. 450;

  ’You have set him that I might shoot him, but I have not shot him,’

  iv. 83.

  SHOOTERS. ‘Where there are many shooters, som
e will hit,’ iii. 254.

  SHORT-HAND. ‘A long head is as good as short-hand’ (Mrs. Thrale), iv. 166.

  SHOT. ‘He is afraid of being shot getting into a house, or hanged when he has got out of it,’ iv. 127.

  SICK. ‘Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me, I am sick of

  both,’ iii. 57;

  ’To a sick man what is the public?’ iv. 260, n. 2.

  SIEVE. ‘Sir, that is the blundering economy of a narrow understanding.

  It is stopping one hole in a sieve,’ iii. 300.

  SINNING. ‘The gust of eating pork with the pleasure of sinning’

  (Dr. Barrowby), iv. 292.

  SLAUGHTER-HOUSE. ‘Let’s go into the slaughter-house again, Lanky.

  But I am afraid there is more blood than brains,’ iv. 20.

  SLIGHT. ‘If it is a slight man and a slight thing you may [laugh at a man to his face], for you take nothing valuable from him,’ iii. 338.

  SLUT. ‘She was generally slut and drunkard, occasionally whore and thief,’ iv. 103.

  SMALL. ‘Small certainties are the bane of men of talents’ (Strahan), ii. 323.

  SMILE. ‘Let me smile with the wise, and feed with the rich,’ ii. 79.

  SOBER. ‘I would not keep company with a fellow who lies as long as he is sober, and whom you must make drunk before you can get a word of truth out of him,’ ii. 188.

  SOCIETY. ‘He puts something into our society and takes nothing out of it,’ v. 178.

  SOCKET. ‘The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket,’ iii. 423.

  SOFT. ‘Sir, it is such a recommendation as if I should throw you out of a two pair of stairs window, and recommend to you to fall soft,’ iv. 323.

  SOLDIERS. ‘Soldiers die scattering bullets,’ v. 240.

  SOLEMNITY. ‘There must be a kind of solemnity in the manner of a professional man,’ iv. 310.

  SOLITARY. ‘Be not solitary, be not idle’ (Burton), iii. 415.

  SOLITUDE. ‘This full-peopled world is a dismal solitude,’ iv. 147, n. 2.

  SORROW. ‘There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow,’ iii. 137, n. 1.

  SORRY. ‘Sir, he said all that a man should say; he said he was sorry for it,’ ii. 436.

  SPARROWS. ‘You may take a field piece to shoot sparrows, but all the sparrows you can bring home will not be worth the charge,’ v. 261.

  Spartam. ‘Spartam quam nactus es orna,’ iv. 379.