So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Modern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To forget, or pretend to do so, to return a borrowed article, is the meanest sort of petty theft. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As not every instance of similitude can be considered as a proof of imitation, so not every imitation ought to be stigmatised… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
False taste is always busy to mislead those that are entering upon the regions of learning; and the traveller, uncertain of his… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Consultation and compliance can conduce little to the perfection of any literary performance; for whoever is so doubtful of his own abilities… — 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
