Those who have past much of their lives in this great city, look upon its opulence and its multitudes, its extent and… — 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
Among other pleasing errors of young minds is the opinion of their own importance. He that has not yet remarked, how little… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much… — 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
No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day will often bring to his task attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is sure good. I would let him at first… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man has some favorite topic of conversation, on which, by a feigned seriousness of attention, he may be drawn to expatiate… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It was the peculiar artifice of Habit not to suffer her power to be felt at first. Those whom she led, she… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance are the writers who take advantage of present… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There prevails among men of letters, an opinion, that all appearance of science is particularly hateful to Women; and that therefore whoever… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience is to be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints, that,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Do not hope wholly to reason away your troubles; do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused, and it is therefore become necessary to gain attention by magnificence… — 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
What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man, however hopeless his pretensions may appear, has some project by which he hopes to rise to reputation; some art by… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nothing detains the reader's attention more powerfully than deep involutions of distress, or sudden vicissitudes of fortune; and these might be abundantly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such is the common process of marriage. A youth and maiden exchange meeting by chance, or brought together by artifice, exchange glances,… — 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
