Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities, superior, either in kind or degree,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Evil is uncertain in the same degree as good, and for the reason that we ought not to hope too securely, we… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is scarcely credible to what degree discernment may be dazzled by the mist of pride, and wisdom infatuated by the intoxication… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Many leave the labours of half their life to their executors and to chance, because they will not send them abroad unfinished,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The student who would build his knowledge on solid foundations, and proceed by just degrees to the pinnacles of truth, is directed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Scarcely any degree of judgment is sufficient to restrain the imagination from magnifying that on which it is long detained — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Reason will by degrees submit to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to darkness. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities superior, either in kind or degree,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Contempt is a kind of gangrene which, if it seizes one part of a character, corrupts all the rest by degrees. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance. — 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
