When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas; he that reads books of science, thogh… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Sorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Tradition is but a meteor, which, if it once falls, cannot be rekindled. Memory, once interrupted, is not to be recalled. But… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten; but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction:… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are occasions on which it is noble to dare to stand alone. To be pious among infidels, to be disinterested in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is common to overlook what is near by keeping the eye fixed on something remote. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Providence has fixed the limits of human enjoyment by immovable boundaries, and has set different gratifications at such a distance from each… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works… — 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