To paint things as they are requires a minute attention, and employs the memory rather than the fancy. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that compares what he has done with what he has left undone, will feel the effect which must always follow the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not uncommon to charge the difference between promise and performance, between profession and reality, upon deep design and studied deceit;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is generally allowed, that no man ever found the happiness of possession proportionate to that expectation which incited his desire, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is true that of far the greater part of things, we must content ourselves with such knowledge as description may exhibit,… — 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
