The fiction of happiness is propagated by every tongue and confirmed by every look till at last all profess the joy which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every class of society has its cant of lamentation, which is understood or regarded by none but themselves; and every part of… — 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 a man feel the reprehension of a friend seconded by his own heart, he is easily heated into resentment. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Sir, sorrow is inherent in humanity. As you cannot judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
None but those who have learned the art of subjecting their senses as well as reason to hypothetical systems can be persuaded… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are certain topicks which are never exhausted. Of some images and sentiments the mind of man may be said to be… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Piety is the only proper and adequate relief of decaying man. He that grows old without religions hopes, as he declines into… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The good of our present state is merely comparative, and the evil which every man feels will be sufficient to disturb and… — 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
Men are most powerfully affected by those evils which themselves feel, or which appear before their own eyes. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery; yet when the same state is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Moral sentences appear ostentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occasions than the journey of a wit to his home town:… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When a poet mentions the spring, we know that the zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is natural for every man uninstructed to murmur at his condition, because, in the general infelicity of life, he feels his… — 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
