Women can spin very well, but they cannot write a good book of cookery. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Human experience, which is constantly contradicting theory, is the great test of truth. A system, built upon the discoveries of a great… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you. — 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
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all. — 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
Lectures were once useful; but now when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Critics ought never to be consulted, but while errors may yet be rectified or insipidity suppressed. But when the book has once… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No man reads a book of science from pure inclination. The books that we do read with pleasure are light compositions, which… — 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
