The necessities of our condition require a thousand offices of tenderness, which mere regard for the species will never dictate. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is good sense applied with diligence to what was at first a mere accident, and which by great application grew to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Ignorance is mere privation by which nothing can be produced: it is a vacuity in which the soul sits motionless and torpid… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and as the… — 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
Human experience, which is constantly contradicting theory, is the great test of truth. A system, built upon the discoveries of a great… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
All knowledge is of itself of some value. There is nothing so minute or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
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
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
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
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
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“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
“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
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
