Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Good breeding consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that is pushing his predecessors into the gulf of obscurity, cannot but sometimes suspect, that he must himself sink in like… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Truth, like beauty, varies its fashions, and is best recommended by different dresses to different minds; and he that recalls the attention… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Pound St. Paul's Church into atoms, and consider any single atom; it is to be sure, good for nothing; but put all these atoms… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
If our aim is to praise, we should forget to criticize; if our aim is to criticize, we should remember to praise — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“The cherubim were never intended as an object of worship, because they were only the appendices to another thing. But a thing is then… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
![“[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.” quote by Samuel Johnson](https://sms4smile.com/q/img-quotes/668/samuel-johnson-50_future-generation_the-poet-must-write-as-the-interpreter-o_3180253.png)
