Man's chief merit consists in resisting the impulses of his nature. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If a man has a science to learn he must regularly and resolutely advance. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You cannot, by all the lecturing in the world, enable a man to make a shoe. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The natural progress of the works of men is from rudeness to convenience, from convenience to elegance, and from elegance to nicety. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Irresolution and mutability are often the faults of men whose views are wide, and whose imagination is vigorous and excursive. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Is not a patron one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is the reason that women servants ... have much lower wages than men servants ... when in fact our female house… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I remember a passage in Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield," which he was afterwards fool enough to expunge: "I do not love a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
More knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few men survey themselves with so much severity as not to admit prejudices in their own favour, which an artful flatterer may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty. Men who have practiced tortures on animals without pity, relating them without shame, how can… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As to the Christian religion, besides the strong evidence which we have for it, there is a balance in its favor from… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is, however, not necessary, that a man should forbear to write, till he has discovered some truth unknown before; he may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company — 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
