Samuel Johnson Quotes about Children

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It is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. You may stand disputing which is best to put in first, but in the mean time your breech is bare. Sir, while you

It is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. 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 learned them both.

Samuel Johnson

Education, Children, Mean

Samuel Johnson (1807). “Dr. Johnson's Table-talk: Containing Aphorisms on Literature, Life, and Manners, with Anecdotes of Distinguished Persons, Selected and Arranged from Mr. Boswell's Life of Johnson”, p.59

Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Men, Savages

Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom; her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity; her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Order, Nymphs

In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children.

Samuel Johnson

Country, Children, Men

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Edmond Malone (1824). “The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished”, p.195

I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received.

Samuel Johnson

Wise, Gratitude, Children

Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.48

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Samuel Johnson

Children, Way, Better Ways

Samuel Johnson (2002). “A Johnson Sampler”, Non Pareil Books

How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives

Samuel Johnson

Children, Eye, Parent

Samuel Johnson (1846). “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia: A Tale”, p.85

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Cake, Taste

Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana, Or, Supplement to Boswell: Being Anecdotes and Sayings of Dr. Johnson”, p.47

Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end

Samuel Johnson

Children, Window, Ends

Samuel Johnson, James Boswell (1825). “The Table Talk of Dr. Johnson: Comprising Opinions and Anecdotes of Life and Literature, Men, Manners, and Morals”, p.55

I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with their children; and those who marry early, with their partners.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Believe, Wedlock

Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.119, Univ of California Press

High people, sir, are the best; take a hundred ladies of quality, you'll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing to sacrifice their own pleasures to their children, than a hundred other woman.

Samuel Johnson

Mother, Children, Sacrifice

James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1866). “The Life of Samuel Johnson”, p.239

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavors to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet less temptation, betray each other to their children.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Parent, Temptation

Samuel Johnson (1809). “Rasselas: A Tale”, p.78

Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in distress, without pity; for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.

Samuel Johnson

Children, Men, Compassion

"Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales".