Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
For sorrow there is no remedy provided by nature; it is often occasioned by accidents irreparable, and dwells upon objects that have… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The labor of rising from the ground will be great, ... but as we mount higher, the earth's attraction, and the body's… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is the great privilege of poverty to be happy unenvied, to be healthful without physic, and secure without a guard; to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity; and the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
For sorrow there is no remedy provided by nature; it is often occasioned by accidents irreparable, and dwells upon objects that have… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men who have flattered themselves into this opinion of their own abilities, look down on all who waste their lives over books,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, of sickness, or captivity, would, without this comfort, be insupportable; nor does… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“That this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism will be readily allowed; but there is always an appeal open… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Shakespeare's plays are not in the rigorous and critical sense either tragedies or comedies, but compositions of a distinct kind; exhibiting the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“It has been observed in all ages that the advantages of nature or of fortune have contributed very little to the promotion… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best: whether… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Religion informs us that misery and sin were produced together. The depravation of human will was followed by a disorder of the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and… — 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
I am not yet so lost in lexicography, as to forget that words are the daughters of the earth, and that things… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by… — 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
