What signifies protesting so against flattery when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or false, you know… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
So willing is every man to flatter himself, that the difference between approving laws, and obeying them, is frequently forgotten; he that… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is good only because it pleases cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves with imagining that they have made a deeper search,… — 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
Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
"I fly from pleasure," said the prince, "because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He who fails to please in his salutation and address is at once rejected, and never obtains an opportunity of showing his… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Commerce however we may please ourselves with the contrary opinion, is one of the daughters of fortune, inconstant and deceitful as her… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whatever professes to benefit by pleasing must please at once. The pleasures of the mind imply something sudden and unexpected; that which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Genius now and then produces a lucky trifle. We still read the Dove of Anacreon, and Sparrow of Catullus; and a writer… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Gaiety is to good-humor as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance. The one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is easy for a man who sits idle at home, and has nobody to please but himself, to ridicule or censure… — 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
