No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is no temper more unpropitious to interest than desultory application and unlimited inquiry, by which the desires are held in a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The number of such as live without the ardour of inquiry is very small, though many content themselves with cheap amusements, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We owe to memory not only the increase of our knowledge, and our progress in rational inquiries, but many other intellectual pleasures — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In questions of law or of fact conscience is very often confounded with opinion. No man's conscience can tell him the rights… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is such a difference between the pursuits of men in great cities that one part of the inhabitants lives to little… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Vanity is so frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, summon our powers to oppose it without… — 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
