There are three distinct kind of judges upon all new authors or productions; the first are those who know no rules, but… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When first the college rolls receive his name, The young enthusiast quilts his ease for fame; Through all his veins the fever… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second… — 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
It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It requires but little acquaintance with the heart to know that woman's first wish is to be handsome; and that, consequently, the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We… — 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
Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is a certain race of men that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is our first duty to serve society, and after we have done that, we may attend wholly to the salvation of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The accidental prescriptions of authority, when time has procured them veneration, are often confounded with the laws of nature, and those rules… — 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
