Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  SPEAK. ‘A man cannot with propriety speak of himself, except he relates simple facts,’ iii. 323.

  SPEND. ‘He has neither spirit to spend nor resolution to spare,’ iii. 317.

  SPENDS. ‘A man who both spends and saves money is the happiest man,’ iii. 322.

  SPIRITUAL COURT. ‘Sir, I can put her into the Spiritual Court,’ i. 101.

  SPLENDOUR. ‘Let us breakfast in splendour,’ iii. 400.

  SPOILED. ‘Like sour small beer, she could never have been a good thing, and even that bad thing is spoiled,’ v. 449, n. 1.

  SPOONS. ‘If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons,’ i. 432.

  STAMP. ‘I was resolved not to give you the advantage even of a stamp in the argument’ (Parr), iv. 15, n. 5.

  STAND. ‘They resolved they would stand by their country,’ i. 164.

  STATELY. ‘That will not be the case [i.e. you will not be imposed on] if you go to a stately shop, as I always do,’ iv. 319.

  STOCKS. ‘A man who preaches in the stocks will always have hearers

  enough,’ ii. 251;

  ’Stocks for the men, a ducking-stool for women, and a pound for

  beasts,’ iii. 287.

  STONE. ‘Chinese is only more difficult from its rudeness; as there is more labour in hewing down a tree with a stone than with an axe,’ iii. 339.

  STONES. ‘I don’t care how often or how high he tosses me when only friends are present, for then I fall upon soft ground; but I do not like falling on stones, which is the case when enemies are present’ (Boswell), iii. 338; ‘The boys would throw stones at him,’ ii. 193.

  STORY. ‘If you were to read Richardson for the story your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself,’ ii. 175.

  STORY-TELLER. ‘I told the circumstance first for my own amusement, but I will not be dragged in as story-teller to a company,’ iv. 192, n. 2.

  STRAIGHT. ‘He has a great deal of learning; but it never lies straight,’ iv. 225.

  STRANGE. ‘I’m never strange in a strange place’ (Journey to London), iv. 284.

  STRATAGEM. ‘This comes of stratagem,’ iii. 275.

  STRAW. ‘The first man who balanced a straw upon his nose… deserved the applause of mankind,’ iii. 231.

  STRETCH. ‘Babies like to be told of giants and castles, and of somewhat which can stretch and stimulate their little minds,’ iv. 8, n. 3.

  STRIKE. ‘A man cannot strike till he has his weapons,’ iii. 316.

  STUFF. ‘It is sad stuff; it is brutish,’ ii. 228; ‘This now is such stuff as I used to talk to my mother, when I first began to think myself a clever fellow, and she ought to have whipped me for it,’ ii. 14.

  STUNNED. ‘We are not to be stunned and astonished by him,’ iv. 83.

  STYE. ‘Sir, he brings himself to the state of a hog in a stye,’ iii. 152.

  STYLE. ‘Nothing is more easy than to write enough in that style if once you begin,’ v. 388.

  SUCCEED. ‘He is only fit to succeed himself,’ ii. 132.

  SUCCESSFUL. ‘Man commonly cannot be successful in different ways,’ iv. 83.

  SUICIDE. ‘Sir, It would be a civil suicide,’ iv. 223.

  SULLEN. ‘Harris is a sound sullen scholar,’ iii. 245.

  SUNSHINE. ‘Dr. Mead lived more in the broad sunshine of life than almost any man,’ iii. 355.

  SUPERIORITY. ‘You shall retain your superiority by my not knowing it,’ ii. 220.

  SURLY. ‘Surly virtue,’ i. 130.

  SUSPICION. ‘Suspicion is very often an useless pain,’ iii. 135.

  SWEET. ‘It has not wit enough to keep it sweet,’ iv. 320.

  SWORD. ‘It is like a man who has a sword that will not draw,’ ii. 161.

  SYBIL. ‘It has all the contortions of the Sybil, without the inspiration,’ iv. 59.

  SYSTEM. ‘No, Sir, let fanciful men do as they will, depend upon it, it is difficult to disturb the system of life,’ ii. 102.

  SYSTEMATICALLY. ‘Kurd, Sir, is one of a set of men who account for everything systematically,’ iv. 189.

  T.

  TABLE. ‘Sir, if Lord Mansfield were in a company of General Officers and Admirals who have been in service, he would shrink; he’d wish to creep under the table,’ iii. 265; ‘As to the style, it is fit for the second table,’ iii. 31.

  TAIL. ‘If any man has a tail, it is Col,’ v. 330; ‘I will not be baited with what and why; what is this? what is that? why is a cow’s tail long? why is a fox’s tail bushy?’ iii. 268.

  TAILS. ‘If they have tails they hide them,’ v. 111.

  TALK. ‘Solid talk,’ v. 365:’

  There is neither meat, drink, nor talk,’ iii. 186, n. 3;

  ’Well, we had good talk,’ ii. 66;

  ’You may talk as other people do,’ iv. 221.

  TALKED. ‘While they talked, you said nothing,’ v. 39.

  TALKING. ‘People may come to do anything almost, by talking of it,’ v. 286.

  TALKS. ‘A man who talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you,’ iii. 247.

  TASKS. ‘Never impose tasks upon mortals,’ iii. 420.

  TAVERN. ‘A tavern chair is the throne of human felicity,’ ii. 452, n. 1.

  TEACH. ‘It is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first,’ i. 452.

  TEA-KETTLE. ‘We must not compare the noise made by your tea-kettle here with the roaring of the ocean,’ ii. 86, n. i.

  TELL. ‘It is not so; do not tell this again,’ iii. 229;

  ’Why, Sir, so am I. But I do not tell it,’ iv. 191.

  TENDERNESS. ‘Want of tenderness is want of parts,’ ii. 122.

  TERROR. ‘Looking back with sorrow and forward with terror,’ iv. 253, n. 4.

  TESTIMONY. ‘Testimony is like an arrow shot from a long bow’

  (Boyle), iv. 281.

  Tête-à-tête. ‘You must not indulge your delicacy too much; or you will be a tête-à-tête man all your life,’ iii. 376.

  THE. ‘The tender infant, meek and mild,’ ii. 212, n. 4.

  THEOLOGIAN. ‘I say, Lloyd, I’m the best theologian, but you are the best Christian,’ vi. liv.

  THIEF. See SLUT.

  THINK. You may talk in this manner,….but don’t think foolishly,’

  iv. 221;

  ’To attempt to think them down is madness,’ ii. 440.

  THOUGHT. ‘Thought is better than no thought,’ iv. 309.

  THOUSAND. ‘A man accustomed to throw for a thousand pounds, if set down to throw for sixpence, would not be at the pains to count his dice,’ iv. 167.

  Tig. ‘There was too much Tig and Tirry in it,’ ii. 127, n. 3.

  TIMBER. ‘Consider, Sir, the value of such a piece of timber here,’ v. 319.

  TIME. ‘He that runs against time has an antagonist not subject to casualties,’ i. 319, n. 3.

  TIMIDITY. ‘I have no great timidity in my own disposition, and am no encourager of it in others,’ iv. 200, n. 4.

  TIPTOE. ‘He is tall by walking on tiptoe,’ iv. 13, n. 2.

  TONGUE. ‘What have you to do with Liberty and Necessity? Or what more than to hold your tongue about it?’ iv. 71.

  TOPICS. See SICK.

  TORMENTOR. ‘That creature was its own tormentor, and, I believe, its name was Boswell,’ i. 470.

  TORPEDO. ‘A pen is to Tom a torpedo; the touch of it benumbs his hand and his brain,’ i. 159, n. 4.

  TOSSED. ‘You tossed and gored several persons’ (Boswell), ii. 66; iii. 338

  TOWERING. ‘Towering in the confidence of twenty-one,’ i. 324.

  TOWN. ‘The town is my element,’ iv. 358.

  TOWSER. ‘As for an estate newly acquired by trade, you may give it, if you will, to the dog Towser, and let him keep his own name,’ ii. 261.

  TRADE. ‘A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind; but
there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind, v. 328; ‘This rage of trade will destroy itself,’ v. 231.

  TRADESMEN. ‘They have lost the civility of tradesmen without acquiring the manners of gentlemen,’ ii. 120.

  TRAGEDY. ‘I never did the man an injury; but he would persist in reading his tragedy to me,’ iv. 244, n. 2.

  TRANSLATION. ‘Sir, I do not say that it may not be made a very good translation,’ iii. 373.

  TRANSMITTER. ‘No tenth transmitter of a foolish face’ (Savage), i. 166, n. 3.

  TRAPS. ‘I play no tricks; I lay no traps,’ iii. 316.

  TRAVELLERS. ‘Ancient travellers guessed, modern measure,’ iii. 356; ‘There has been, of late, a strange turn in travellers to be displeased,’ iii. 236.

  TRAVELLING. ‘When you set travelling against mere negation, against doing nothing, it is better to be sure,’ iii. 352.

  TRICKS. ‘All tricks are either knavish or childish,’ iii. 396.

  TRIM. ‘A mile may be as trim as a square yard,’ iii. 272.

  TRIUMPH. ‘It was the triumph of hope over experience,’ ii. 128.

  TRUTH. ‘I considered myself as entrusted with a certain portion of truth,’ iv. 65; ‘Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it,’ iv. 12; ‘Nobody has a right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth, or hurt himself by telling what is not truth,’ iii. 320; ‘Poisoning the sources of eternal truth,’ v. 42.

  TUMBLING. ‘Sir, a man will no more carry the artifice of the Bar into the common intercourse of society, than a man who is paid for tumbling upon his hands will continue to tumble upon his hands when he should walk on his feet,’ ii. 48.

  TURN. ‘He had no turn to economy’ (Langton), iii, 363, n. 2.

  TURNPIKE. ‘For my own part now, I consider supper as a turnpike through which one must pass in order to get to bed’ (Boswell or Edwards), iii. 306.

  TURNSPIT. ‘The fellow is as awkward as a turnspit when first put into the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse,’ iv. 411.

  TYRANNY. ‘There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny,’ ii. 170.

  U.

  UNCERTAINTY. ‘After the uncertainty of all human things at Hector’s this invitation came very well,’ ii. 456.

  UNCHARITABLY. ‘Who is the worse for being talked of uncharitably? iv. 97.

  UNCIVIL. ‘I did mean to be uncivil, thinking you had been uncivil,’

  iii. 273;

  ’Sir, a man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than

  to act one,’ iv. 28.

  UNDERMINED. ‘A stout healthy old man is like a tower undermined’

  (Bacon), iv. 277.

  UNDERSTANDING. ‘Sir, I have found you an argument, but I am not obliged to find you an understanding,’ iv. 313; ‘When it comes to dry understanding, man has the better [of woman],’ iii. 52.

  UNEASY. ‘I am angry with him who makes me uneasy,’ iii. II.

  UNPLIABLE. ‘She had come late into life, and had a mighty unpliable understanding,’ v. 296.

  UNSETTLE. ‘They tended to unsettle everything, and yet settled nothing,’ ii. 124.

  USE. ‘Never mind the use; do it,’ ii. 92.

  V.

  VACUITY. ‘I find little but dismal vacuity, neither business nor pleasure,’ iii. 380, n. 3; ‘Madam, I do not like to come down to vacuity,’ ii. 410.

  VERSE. ‘Verse sweetens toil’ (Gifford), v. 117.

  VERSES. ‘They are the forcible verses of a man of a strong mind, but not accustomed to write verse,’ iv. 24.

  VEX. ‘He delighted to vex them, no doubt; but he had more delight in

  seeing how well he could vex them,’ ii. 334;

  ’Sir, he hoped it would vex somebody,’ iv. 9;

  ’Public affairs vex no man,’ iv. 220.

  VICE. ‘Thy body is all vice, and thy mind all virtue,’ i. 250; ‘Madam, you are here not for the love of virtue but the fear of vice,’ ii. 435.

  VIRTUE. ‘I think there is some reason for questioning whether virtue cannot stand its ground as long as life,’ iv. 374, n. 5.

  Vitam. ‘Vitam continet una dies,’ i, 84.

  VIVACITY. ‘There is a courtly vivacity about the fellow,’ ii. 465; ‘Depend upon it, Sir, vivacity is much an art, and depends greatly on habit,’ ii. 462.

  Vivite. ‘Vivite laeti,’ i. 344, n. 4.

  VOW. ‘The man who cannot go to heaven without a vow may go — ,’ iii. 357.

  W.

  WAG. ‘Every man has some time in his life an ambition to be a wag,’ iv. I, n. 2.

  WAIT. ‘Sir, I can wait,’ iv. 21.

  WALK. ‘Let us take a walk from Charing Cross to Whitechapel, through,

  I suppose, the greatest series of shops in the world,’ ii. 218.

  WANT. ‘You have not mentioned the greatest of all their wants — the want of law,’ ii. 126; ‘Have you no better manners? There is your want,’ ii. 475.

  WANTS. ‘We are more uneasy from thinking of our wants than happy in thinking of our acquisitions’ (Windham), iii. 354.

  WAR. ‘War and peace divide the business of the world,’ iii. 361, n. 1.

  WATCH. ‘He was like a man who resolves to regulate his time by a certain watch, but will not enquire whether the watch is right or not,’ ii. 213.

  WATER. ‘A man who is drowned has more water than either of us,’

  v. 34;

  ’Come, Sir, drink water, and put in for a hundred,’ iii. 306;

  ’Water is the same everywhere,’ v. 54.

  WAY. ‘Sir, you don’t see your way through that question,’ ii. 122.

  WEAK-NERVED. ‘I know no such weak-nerved people,’ iv. 280.

  WEALTH. ‘The sooner that a man begins to enjoy his wealth the better,’ ii. 226.

  WEAR. ‘No man’s face has had more wear and tear,’ ii. 410.

  WEIGHT. ‘He runs about with little weight upon his mind,’ ii. 375.

  WELL. ‘They are well when they are not ill’ (Temple), iv. 379.

  WENCH. ‘Madam, she is an odious wench,’ iii. 298.

  WHALES. ‘If you were to make little fishes talk, they would talk like whales’ (Goldsmith), ii. 231.

  WHELP. ‘It is wonderful how the whelp has written such things,’ iii. 51.

  WHIG. ‘A Whig may be a fool, a Tory must be so’ (Horace Walpole),

  iv. 117, n. 5;

  ’He hated a fool, and he hated a rogue, and he hated a Whig; he

  was a very good hater,’ i. 190, n. 2;

  ’He was a Whig who pretended to be honest,’ v. 339;

  ’I do not like much to see a Whig in any dress, but I hate to see

  a Whig in a parson’s gown,’ v. 255;

  ’Sir, he is a cursed Whig, a bottomless Whig, as they all are now,’

  iv. 223;

  ’Sir, I perceive you are a vile Whig,’ ii. 170;

  ’The first Whig was the Devil,’ iii. 326;

  ’Though a Whig, he had humanity’ (A. Campbell), v. 357.

  WHIGGISM. ‘They have met in a place where there is no room for

  Whiggism,’ v. 385;

  ’Whiggism was latterly no better than the politics of stock-jobbers,

  and the religion of infidels,’ ii. 117;

  ’Whiggism is a negation of all principle,’ i. 431.

  WHINE. ‘A man knows it must be so and submits. It will do him no good to whine,’ ii. 107.

  WHORE. ‘They teach the morals of a whore and the manners of a

  dancing-master,’ i. 266;

  ’The woman’s a whore, and there’s an end on’t,’ ii. 247.

  See SLUT.

  WHY, SIR. ‘Why, Sir, as to the good or evil of card-playing — ,’ iii. 23.

  WIG. ‘In England any man who wears a sword and a powdered wig is ashamed to be illiterate,’ iii. 254.

  WILDS. See BRIARS.

  WIND. ‘The noise of the wind was all its own’ (Boswell), v. 407.

&
nbsp; WINDOW. See SOFT.

  WINE. ‘I now no more think of drinking wine than a horse does,’ iii. 250;

  ’It is wine only to the eye,’ iii. 381; ‘This is one of the

  disadvantages of wine. It makes a man mistake words for thoughts,’

  iii. 329:

  See SENSE.

  WISDOM. ‘Every man is to take care of his own wisdom, and his own virtue, without minding too much what others think,’ iii. 405.

  WIT. ‘His trade is wit,’ iii. 389;

  ’His trade was wisdom’ (Baretti), iii. 137, n. 1;

  ’Sir, Mrs. Montagu does not make a trade of her wit,’ iv. 275;

  ’This man, I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he

  is only a wit among Lords,’ i. 266;

  ’Wit is generally false reasoning’ (Wycherley), iii. 23, n. 3.

  WITHOUT. ‘Without ands or ifs,’ &c. (anonymous poet), v. 127.

  WOMAN. ‘No woman is the worse for sense and knowledge,’ v. 226.

  WOMAN’S. ‘Sir, a woman’s preaching is like a dog’s walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all,’ i. 463.

  WOMEN. ‘Women have a perpetual envy of our vices,’ iv. 291.

  WONDER. ‘The natural desire of man to propagate a wonder,’ iii.

  229, n. 3;

  ’Sir, you may wonder, ii. 15.

  WONDERS. ‘Catching greedily at wonders,’ i. 498, n. 4.

  WOOL. ‘Robertson is like a man who has packed gold in wool; the wool takes up more room than the gold,’ ii. 237.

  WORK. ‘How much do you think you and I could get in a week if we were to work as hard as we could?’ i. 246.

  WORLD. ‘All the complaints which are made of the world are unjust,’

  iv. 172;

  ’Poets who go round the world,’ v. 311;

  ’One may be so much a man of the world as to be nothing in the

  world,’ iii. 375;

  ’The world has always a right to be regarded, ii. 74, n. 3;

  ’This world where much is to be done, and little to be known,’

  iv. 370, n. 3;

  ’That man sat down to write a book to tell the world what the

  world had all his life been telling him,’ ii. 126.

  WORST. ‘It may be said of the worst man that he does more good than evil,’ iii. 236.

  WORTH. ‘Worth seeing? Yes; but not worth going to see,’ iii. 410.

  WRITE. ‘A man should begin to write soon,’ iv. 12.