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 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
I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is sure good. I would let him at first… — 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
I love the acquaintance of young people; because, in the first place, I do not like to think myself growing old. In… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength… — 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
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
The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with… — 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
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
