“The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendour cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate; those soft… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When I first collected these authorities, I was desirous that every quotation should be useful to some other end than the illustration… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Where necessity ends, desire and curiosity begin; and no sooner are we supplied with everything nature can demand than we sit down… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man has some favorite topic of conversation, on which, by a feigned seriousness of attention, he may be drawn to expatiate… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly-but then less is learned there; so what the boys get at one… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If an author be supposed to involve his thoughts in voluntary obscurity, and to obstruct, by unnecessary difficulties, a mind eager in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Accustom your children constantly to this; if a thing happened at one window and they, when relating it, say that it happened… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The great end of prudence is to give cheerfulness to those hours which splendor cannot gild, and acclamation cannot exhilarate. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which if not a virtue, is the groundwork of a… — 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
