Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Virtue is uncommon in all the classes of humanity; and I suppose it will scarcely be imagined more frequent in a prison… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I believe marriages would in general be as happy, and often more so, if they were all made by the Lord Chancellor,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical regard to morals and religion; he may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
They whose activity of imagination is often shifting the scenes of expectation, are frequently subject to such sallies of caprice as make… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To preserve health is a moral and religious duty: for health is the basis of all social virtues; and we can be… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Most men are more willing to indulge in easy vices than to practise laborious virtues. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In youth, it is common to measure right and wrong by the opinion of the world, and in age, to act without… — 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
The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But grant, the virtues of a temp'rate prime Bless with an age exempt from scorn or crime; An age that melts with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the… — 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
Solitude is dangerous to reason, without being favorable to virtue. Remember that the solitary mortal is certainly luxurious, probably superstitious, and possibly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Be not too hasty," said Imlac, "to trust or to admire the teachers of morality: they discourse like angels, but they live… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer:… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a… — 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
