What signifies protesting so against flattery when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or false, you know… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Cunning has effect from the credulity of others, rather than from the abilities of those who are cunning. It requires no extraordinary… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whoever commits a fraud is guilty not only of the particular injury to him who he deceives, but of the diminution of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The happiness of building lasted but a little while, for though I love to spend, I hate to be cheated; and I… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Though I love to spend, I hate be cheated, and I found that to build is to be robbed. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Don't tell me of deception; a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their full magnitude, but the gradual growth of our own wickedness,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Falsehoods of convenience or vanity, falsehoods from which no evil immediately visible ensues, except the general degradation of human testimony, are very… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But, perhaps, the flatterer is not often detected; for an honest mind is not apt to suspect, and no one exerts the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness.… — 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
