John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 368
| Samuel Johnson. (1709–1784) (continued) |
| expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow,—attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. |
| Rasselas. Chap. i. |
| 4011 |
| “I fly from pleasure,” said the prince, “because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.” |
| Rasselas. Chap. iii. |
| 4012 |
| A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xii. |
| 4013 |
| Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xii. |
| 4014 |
| Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. 1 |
| Rasselas. Chap. xiii. |
| 4015 |
| I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xvi. |
| 4016 |
| Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xvi. |
| 4017 |
| The first years of man must make provision for the last. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xvii. |
| 4018 |
| Example is always more efficacious than precept. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xxx. |
| 4019 |
| The endearing elegance of female friendship. |
| Rasselas. Chap. xlvi. |
| 4020 |
| I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven. 2 |
| Preface to his Dictionary. |
| 4021 |
| Words are men’s daughters, but God’s sons are things. 3 |
| Boulter’s Monument. (Supposed to have been inserted by Dr. Johnson, 1745.) |
| Note 1. See Bacon, Quotation 39. [back] |
| Note 2. The italics and the word “forget” would seem to imply that the saying was not his own. [back] |
| Note 3. Sir William Jones gives a similar saying in India: “Words are the daughters of earth, and deeds are the sons of heaven.” See Herbert, Quotation 29. Sir Thomas Bodley: Letter to his Librarian, 1604. [back] |