If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words. — 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
Difference of thoughts will produce difference of language. He that thinks with more extent than another, will want words of a larger… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets… — 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
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
Every government is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether… — 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
