He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769,... he had said ...of them, "Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hume, and other sceptical innovators, are vain men, and will gratify themselves at any expense. Truth will not afford sufficient f...ood to their vanity; so they have betaken themselves to errour. Truth, sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
On his favourite subject of subordination, Johnson said, "So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two p...eople can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We talked of the education of children; and I asked him what he thought was best to teach them first. JOHNSON. "Sir, it is no matt...er what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. Sir, you may stand disputing which is best to put in first, but in the mean time your breech is bare. Sir, while you are considering which of two things you should teach your child first, another boy has learnt them both.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that ev...ery thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I shall never forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I told him that Goldsmith had said,... "As I take my shoes from the shoemaker, and my coat from the taylor, so I take my religion ...from the priest." I regretted this loose way of talking. JOHNSON. Sir, he knows nothing; he has made up his mind about nothing."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Sir, there is one Mrs. Macaulay in this town, a great republican. One day when I was at her house, I put on a very grave countenan...ce, and said to her, "Madam, I am now become a convert to your way of thinking. I am convinced that all mankind are upon an equal footing; and to give you an unquestionable proof, Madam, that I am in earnest, here is a very sensible, civil, well-behaved fellow-citizen, your footman; I desire that he may be allowed to sit down and dine with us." I thus, Sir, shewed her the absurdity of the levelling doctrine. She has never liked me since. Sir, your levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
His Majesty enquired if he was then writing any thing. He answered, he was not, for he had pretty well told the world what he knew..., and must now read to acquire more knowledge.... Johnson said, he thought he had already done his part as a writer. "I should have thought so too, (said the King,) if you had not written so well."--Johnson observed to me, upon this, that "No man could have paid a handsomer compliment; and it was fit for a King to pay. It was decisive." When asked ... whether he made any reply to this high compliment, he answered, "No, Sir. When the King had said it, it was to be so. It was not for me to bandy civilities with my Sovereign."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »