The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world therefore swarms with writers whose… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is an amusement rather than a good, and adapted to none but very tranquil minds. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the pleasure of projecting that many content themselves with a succession of visionary schemes, and wear out their allotted time… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hunting was the labour of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The number of such as live without the ardour of inquiry is very small, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is a certain race of men that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
On Sir Joshua Reynolds's observing that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements. Yes, Sir, no man… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
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 Image
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
