Every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time: he should impute the seeming… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Affectation naturally counterfeits those excellences which are placed at the greatest distance from possibility of attainment, because, knowing our own defects, we… — 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
Philosophy has often attempted to repress insolence by asserting that all conditions are leveled by death; a position which, however it may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Before dinner men meet with great inequality of understanding; and those who are conscious of their inferiority have the modesty not to… — 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
