Of all kinds of credulity, the most obstinate is that of party-spirit; of men, who, being numbered, they know not why, in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I know not any crime so great that a man could contrive to commit as poisoning the sources of eternal truth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nothing detains the reader's attention more powerfully than deep involutions of distress, or sudden vicissitudes of fortune; and these might be abundantly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Every man that has felt pain knows how little all other comforts can gladden him to whom health is denied. Yet who… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Critics ought never to be consulted, but while errors may yet be rectified or insipidity suppressed. But when the book has once… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When a poet mentions the spring, we know that the zephyrs are about to whisper, that the groves are to recover their… — 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
