What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn't deserve resentment, and malice is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“It is all work, and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the want of money, which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are all prompted by the same motives, all deceived by the same fallacies, all animated by hope, obstructed by danger, entangled… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Of him that hopes to be forgiven it is indispensably required that he forgive. It is, therefore, superfluous to urge any other… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The morality of an action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The whole world is put in motion by the wish for riches and the dread of poverty. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A patriot is he whose public conduct is regulated by one single motive, the love of his country; who, as an agent… — 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
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
