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
To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life is surely given us for higher purposes than to gather what our ancestors have wisely thrown away, and to learn what… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is, therefore, superfluous to urge any other… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is good only because it pleases cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nothing has so exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule as their ignorance of things which are known to all but… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A voyage to the moon, however romantick and absurd the scheme may now appear, since the properties of air have been better… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The love of retirement has in all ages adhered closely to those minds which have been most enlarged by knowledge, or elevated… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When any calamity is suffered, the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among many parallels which men of imagination have drawn between the natural and moral state of the world, it has been observed… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Many causes may vitiate a writer's judgement of his own works. On that which has cost him much labour he sets a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To embarrass justice by multiplicity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges, seem to be the opposite rocks on… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To be prejudiced is always to be weak; yet there are prejudices so near to laudable that they have been often praised… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The heroes of literary history have been no less remarkable for what they have suffered than for what they have achieved. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The history of mankind is little else than a narrative of designs which have failed and hopes that have been disappointed. — 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
As to the Christian religion, besides the strong evidence which we have for it, there is a balance in its favor from… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
How many may a man of diffusive conversation count among his acquaintances, whose lives have been signalized by numberless escapes; who never… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions. What we have missed long enough… — 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 fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men have been wise in many different modes; but they have always laughed the same way. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable… — 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
