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
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
Critics, like the rest of mankind, are very frequently misled by interest — 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
You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets… — 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
The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The animadversions of critics are commonly such as may easily provoke the sedatest writer to some quickness of resentment and asperity of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is a certain race of men that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception… — 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
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
