Affectation is to be always distinguished from hypocrisy as being the art of counterfeiting those qualities, which we might with innocence and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings because they are his own. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life of Ages, richly poured, Love of God unspent and free, Flowing in the Prophet's word And the People's liberty! Never was… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When the original is well chosen and judiciously copied, the imitator often arrives at excellence which he could never have attained without… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy, affectation part of the chosen trappings of folly; the one completes a villain, the other… — 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