Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wisdom and virtue are by no means sufficient, without the supplemental laws of good-breeding, to secure freedom from degenerating into rudeness, or… — 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
The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
But the distant hope of being one day useful or eminent ought not to mislead us too far from that study which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pride is seldom delicate, it will please itself with very mean advantages; and envy feels not its own happiness, but when it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When the eye or the imagination is struck with an uncommon work, the next transition of an active mind is to the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wasting a fortune is evaporation by a thousand imperceptible means. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The authour who imitates his predecessors only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegances out of the same general magazine of literature,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is no matter what you teach them first, any more than what leg you shall put into your breeches first. You… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We must consider how very little history there is--I mean real, authentic history. That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Fine clothes are good only as they supply the want of other means of procuring respect. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The common people do not accurately adapt their thoughts to objects; nor, secondly, do they accurately adapt their words to their thoughts;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The whole power of cunning is privative; to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet… — 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
It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When a man says he had pleasure with a woman he does not mean conversation. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pension: An allowance made to anyone without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To understand the works of celebrated authors, to comprehend their systems, and retain their reasonings, is a task more than equal to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of… — 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
