“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has… — 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
“In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness." ( On the Bravery of the English Common Soldiers )” — 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
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
