Samuel Johnson Quotes about Virtue

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No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.

No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.

Samuel Johnson

People, Liberty, Virtue

"An Introduction to the Political State of Great Britain" (1756)

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

Samuel Johnson

Praise, Virtue, Servant

Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.119

He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.

Samuel Johnson

Law, Action, Virtue

Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.163, Univ of California Press

Virtue is too often merely local.

Samuel Johnson

Virtue, Locals

Samuel Johnson (1819). “The Beauties of Samuel Johnson: Consisting of Maxims and Observations, Moral, Critical, and Miscellaneous”, p.284

To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.

Samuel Johnson

Mind, Virtue, Abstinence

"The Idler: With Additional Essays".

Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.

Samuel Johnson

Strong, Men, Virtue

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.389