Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired.... Do not suffer life to stagnate;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Combinations of wickedness would overwhelm the world, by the advantage which licentious principles afford, did not those who have long practised perfidy… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a… — 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
It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself, might convey… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time… — 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
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred… — 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
As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate… — 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
