Samuel Johnson Quotes about Solitude

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If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.

If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.

Samuel Johnson

Advice, Solitude, Sloth

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (letter to Boswell, 27 Oct. 1779)

Study requires solitude, and solitude is a state dangerous to those who are too much accustomed to sink into themselves

Samuel Johnson

Solitude, Too Much, Study

Samuel Johnson (1761). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes”, p.185

The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.

Samuel Johnson

Knowledge, Solitude, May

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq”, p.257

When female minds are embittered by age or solitude, their malignity is generally exerted in a rigorous and spiteful superintendence of domestic trifles.

Samuel Johnson

Women, Solitude, Mind

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1857). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius”, p.177

To live without feeling or exciting sympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude; it is not retreat, but exclusion from mankind. Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

Samuel Johnson

Pain, Solitude, Feelings

Rasselas ch. 26 (1759)

It may be laid down as a position which seldom deceives, that when a man cannot bear his own company, there is something wrong.

Samuel Johnson

Men, Solitude, May

Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.27

To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar

Samuel Johnson

Thinking, Solitude, Inquiry

Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.85, Univ of California Press

Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favourable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly mad.

Samuel Johnson

Mad, Solitude, Remember

"Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. during the last twenty years of his life".

The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout.

Samuel Johnson

Men, Solitude, Miserable

Samuel Johnson, Abraham Raimbach, Robert Smirke (1819). “Rasselas”, p.85

The love of retirement has in all ages adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated by genius. Those who enjoyed everything generally supposed to confer happiness have been forced to seek it in the shades of privacy.

Samuel Johnson

Retirement, Solitude, Mind

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1836). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: with an essay on his life and genius”, p.22