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
Criticism, though dignified from the earliest ages by the labours of men eminent for knowledge and sagacity, has not yet attained the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expenses — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment; he that refines… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We owe few of the rules of writing to the acuteness of critics, who have generally no other merit than that, having… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The duty of criticism is neither to depreciate nor dignify by partial representations, but to hold out the light of reason, whatever… — 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
The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As every writer has his use, every writer ought to have his patrons; and since no man, however high he may now… — 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
