“My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is a man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grow torpid in old age. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in "Hierocles", who, when he offered his house… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A translator is to be like his author; it is not his business to excel him. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Golf: A game in which you claim the privileges of age and retain the playthings of youth. — 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
