The uniform necessities of human nature produce in a great measure uniformity of life, and for part of the day make one… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Politeness is fictitious benevolence. Depend upon it, the want of it never fails to produce something disagreeable to one or other. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Admiration must be continued by that novelty which first produces it; and how much soever is given, there must always be reason… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nothing has so exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule as their ignorance of things which are known to all but… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Riches, perhaps, do not so often produce crimes as incite accusers. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Words become low by the occasions to which they are applied, or the general character of them who use them; and the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Such seems to be the disposition of man, that whatever makes a distinction produces rivalry. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In his comic scenes, Shakespeare seems to produce, without labor, what no labor can improve. — 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
Among the many inconsistencies which folly produces or infirmity suffers in the human mind, there has often been observed a manifest and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate"; an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Players, Sir! I look upon them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint-stools to make faces and produce laughter,… — 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
To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Deceit and falsehood, whatever conveniences they may for a time promise or produce, are, in the sum of life, obstacles to happiness.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any… — 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
