Quotes on Conviviality
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page
Home | Topical Guide | Search the Site

 
 

225. Conversation; Conviviality
When I complained of having dined at a splendid table without hearing one sentence of conversation worthy of being remembered, he said, "Sir, there seldom is any such conversation." Boswell: "Why then meet at table?" Johnson: "Why, to eat and drink together, and to promote kindness; and, Sir, this is better done when there is no solid conversation; for when there is, people differ in opinion, and get into bad humour, or some of the company who are not capable of such conversation, are left out, and feel themselves uneasy. It was for this reason, Sir Robert Walpole said, he always talked bawdy at his table, because in that all could join."
Boswell: Life
Link


453. Conviviality; Good Humor
"There are few doors through which liberality, joined with good humor, cannot find its way."
Johnson: Rasselas [Narrator]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from Rasselas.
Link


816. Conviviality; Society
"It is necessary ... to cultivate an habitual alacrity and cheerfulness, that in whatever state we may be placed by Providence, whether we are appointed to confer or receive benefits, to implore or to afford protection, we may secure the love of those with whom we transact."
Johnson: Rambler #74 (December 1, 1750)
Link


904. Conviviality; Winter
"The winter ... is generally celebrated as the proper season for domestic merriment and gaiety. We are seldom invited by the votaries of pleasure to look abroad for any other purpose than that we may shrink back with more satisfaction to our coverts, and when we have heard the howl of the tempest, and felt the gripe of the frost, congratulate each other with more gladness upon a close room, an easy chair, and a smoking dinner."
Johnson: Rambler #80 (December 22, 1750)
Link


906. Conviviality; Winter
"The rigour of winter brings generally to the same fireside those who, by the opposition of inclinations, or differences of employment, moved in various directions through the various parts of the year; and when they have met, and find it their mutual interest to remain together, they endear each other by mutual continuance of the social season, with all its bleakness and all its severities."
Johnson: Rambler #80 (December 22, 1750)
Link


979. Conversation; Conviviality; Involvement; Society
"After the exercises which the health of the body requires, and which have themselves a natural tendency to actuate and invigorate the mind, the most eligible amusement of a rational being seems to be that interchange of thoughts which is practised in free and easy conversation; where suspicion is banished by experience, and emulation by benevolence; where every man speaks with no other restraint than unwillingness to offend, and hears with no other disposition than desire to be pleased."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link


980. Conviviality; Love; Society
"A wise and good man is never so amiable as in his unbended and familiar intervals. Heroic generosity or philosophical discoveries may compel veneration and respect, but love always implies some kind of natural or voluntary equality, and is only to be excited by that levity and cheerfulness which disencumbers all minds from awe and solicitude, invites the modest to freedom, and exalts the timorous to confidence. This easy gaiety is certain to please, whatever the character of him that exerts it; if our superiors descend from their elevation, we love them for lessening the distance at which we are placed below them; and inferiors, from whom we can receive no lasting advantage, will always keep our affections while their sprightliness and mirth contribute to our pleasure."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link


981. Conviviality
"Every man finds himself differently affected by the sight of fortresses of war, and palaces of pleasure; we look on the height and strength of the bulwarks with a kind of gloomy satisfaction, for we cannot think of defence without admitting images of danger; but we range delighted and jocund through the gay apartments of the palace, because nothing is impressed by them on the mind but joy and festivity. Such is the difference between great and amiable characters; with protectors we are safe, with companions we are happy."
Johnson: Rambler #89 (January 22, 1751)
Link


999. Cards; Conviviality; Society
"I am very sorry I have not learned to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness and consolidates society."
Boswell: Tour to the Hebrides
Link


1,017. Conviviality; Friendship
"That friendship may at once be fond and lasting, a conformity of inclinations is necessary. No man can have much kindness for him by whom he does not believe himself esteemed, and nothing so evidently proves esteem as imitation. That benevolence is always strongest which arises from participation in the same pleasures, since we are naturally most willing to revive in our minds the memory of persons with whom the idea of enjoyment is connected. It is commonly, therefore, to little purpose, that anyone endeavours to ingratiate himself with such as he cannot accompany in their amusements and diversions. Men have been known to rise to favour and to fortune only by being skilful in the sports with which their patron happened to be delighted, by concurring with his taste for some particular species of curiosities, by relishing the same wine, or applauding the same cookery. Even those whom wisdom or virtue have placed above regard to such petty recommendations, must nevertheless be gained by similitude of manners."
Johnson: Rambler #99 (February 26, 1751)
Link


1,115. Conviviality; Good Humor
"In things which are not immediately subject to religious or moral consideration, it is dangerous to be too long or too rigidly in the right."
Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751)
Link


1,121. Conviviality; Society
"That it is every man's interest to be pleased will need little proof: that it is his interest to please others experience will inform him."
Johnson: Rambler #112 (April 13, 1751)
Link


1,407. Conviviality; Curiosity; Humility; Progress

"I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use. It is only from the various essays of experimental industry, and the vague excursions of mind set upon discovery, that any advancement of knowledge can be expected; and though many must be disappointed in their labours, yet they are not to be charged with having spent their time in vain; their example contributed to inspire emulation, and their miscarriage taught others the way to success.

"But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which is equally requisite to the great and mean, to the celebrated and obscure; the art of moderating the desires, of repressing the appetites; and of conciliating or retaining the favour of mankind."

Johnson: Rambler #180 (December 7, 1751)
Link


1,433. Conviviality; Envy; Wit
"Few are more frequently envied than those who have the power of forcing attention wherever they come, whose entrance is considered as a promise of felicity, and whose departure is lamented like the recess of the sun from northern climates, as a privation of all that enlivens fancy or inspirits gaiety."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,434. Conversation; Conviviality; Wit
"The pleasure which men are able to give in conversation holds no stated proportion to their knowledge or their virtue. Many find their way to the tables and parties of those who never considered them as of the least importance in any other place; we have all, at one time or other been content to love those whom we could not esteem, and been persuaded to try the dangerous experiment of admitting him for a companion whom we knew to be too ignorant for a counsellor, and too treacherous for a friend."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,435. Conviviality
"I question whether some abatement of character is not necessary to general acceptance. Few spend their time with much satisfaction under the eye of uncontestable superiority; and therefore, among those whose presence is courted at assemblies of jollity, there are seldom found men eminently distinguished for powers or acquisitions."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,436. Conversation
"No style of conversation is more extensively acceptable than the narrative."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,438. Conviviality
"Many, without being able to attain any general character of excellence, have some single art of entertainment, which serves them as a passport through the world."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,439. Admiration; Conviviality; Love
"It is always necessary to be loved, but not always necessary to be reverenced."
Johnson: Rambler #188 (January 4, 1752)
Link


1,460. Conviviality; Offense
"Of those with whom nature and virtue oblige us to converse, some are ignorant of the arts of pleasing, and offend when they design to caress; some are negligent, and gratify themselves without regard to the quiet of another; some, perhaps, are malicious, and feel no greater satisfaction in prosperity than that of raising envy and trampling inferiority. But whatever be the motive of insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly scarcely can deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect."
Johnson: Rambler #200 (February 15, 1752)
Link


1,758. Conviviality
"I had been used to consider laughter as the effect of merriment; but I soon learned that it is one of the arts of adulation, and, from laughing only to shew that I was pleased, I now began to laugh when I wished to please."
Johnson: Idler #64 (July 7, 1759) [from a fictional correspondent, "Tim Ranger"]
Link


The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page
Back to Top
Home | Topical Guide | Search the SiteThis image is only to register visitors
who come through cached search engine pages.