No, Sir, you will have much more influence by giving or lending money where it is wanted, than by hospitality. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and, to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand… — 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
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
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can; and conquered they must be, or neither… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not possible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That merit which gives greatness and renown diffuses its… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mathematicians are well acquainted with the difference between pure science, which has only to do with ideas, and the application of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is a maxim that no man was ever enslaved by influence while he was fit to be free. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When the original is well chosen and judiciously copied, the imitator often arrives at excellence which he could never have attained without… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To scatter praise or blame without regard to justice is to destroy the distinction of good and evil. Many have no other… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Surely nothing is more reproachful to a being endowed with reason, than to resign its powers to the influence of the air,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It has long been observed, that an atheist has no just reason for endeavouring conversions; and yet none harass those minds which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every one should consider himself as intrusted not only with his own conduct, but with that of others; and as accountable, not… — 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
