Where there is emulation, there will be vanity; where there is vanity, there will be folly. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A certain amount of distrust is wholesome, but not so much of others as of ourselves; neither vanity not conceit can exist… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I doubt if there ever was a man who was not gratified by being told that he was liked by the women. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities, superior, either in kind or degree,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Truth will not afford sufficient food to their vanity; so they have betaken, themselves to errour. Truth, Sir, is a cow which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it; for,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
So willing is every man to flatter himself, that the difference between approving laws, and obeying them, is frequently forgotten; he that… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The greatest human virtue bears no proportion to human vanity. We always think ourselves better than we are, and are generally desirous… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. — 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
