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Samuel Johnson Quotes about Reality

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It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and invigorated his pursuit; nor has any man found the evils of life so formidable

It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and invigorated his pursuit; nor has any man found the evils of life so formidable in reality, as they were described to him by his own imagination; every species of distress brings with it some peculiar supports, some unforeseen means of resisting, or powers of enduring.

Samuel Johnson
Mean, Reality, Men
Samuel Johnson (1848). “The Wisdom of the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.28

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality.

Samuel Johnson
Travel, Reality, Imagination
Samuel Johnson (1836). “Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc”, p.104

To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy.

Samuel Johnson
Memories, Reality, Attention
Samuel Johnson (1810). “The Works of the English Poets, from Chaucer to Cowper”, p.309

The world is seldom what it seems; to man, who dimly sees, realities appear as dreams, and dreams realities.

Samuel Johnson
Dream, Reality, Men

It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit; but the truth is, that there is very little hypocrisy in the world.

Samuel Johnson
Reality, Differences, Hypocrisy
Samuel Johnson (1968). “Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler”, p.286, Yale University Press

I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.

Samuel Johnson
Running, Reality, Ideas
James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Boswell's Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour of the Hebrides, and Johnson's Diary of A Journey Into North Wales”, p.390

The process is the reality.

Samuel Johnson
Reality, Process

He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the comparison of imagination with reality; he will look with contempt on his own unimportance, and wonder to what purpose he came into the world; he will repine that he shall leave behind him no evidence of his having been, that he has added nothing to the system of life, but has glided from youth to age among the crowd, without any effort for distinction.

Samuel Johnson
Reality, Imagination, Effort
Samuel Johnson (1810). “Works”, p.355

It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit, or analogy supply; but it is true likewise, that these ideas are always incomplete, and that at least, till we have compared them with realities, we do not know them to be just. As we see more, we become possessed of more certainties, and consequently gain more principles of reasoning, and found a wider base of analogy.

Samuel Johnson
Knowledge, Reality, Ideas
Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Lives of the poets”, p.629

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