Repentance, however difficult to be practiced, is, if it be explained without superstition, easily understood. Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Man is a transitory being, and his designs must partake of the imperfections of their author. To confer duration is not always… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The business of life is to go forward; he who sees evil in prospect meets it in his way, and he who… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Advice is offensive, not because it lays us open to unexpected regret, or convicts us of any fault which had escaped our… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To tell your own secrets is generally folly, but that folly is without guilt; to communicate those with which we are intrusted… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are certain topicks which are never exhausted. Of some images and sentiments the mind of man may be said to be… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Guilt has always its horrors and solicitudes; and, to make it yet more shameful and detestable, it is doomed often to stand… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To revenge reasonable incredulity by refusing evidence, is a degree of insolence with which the world is not yet acquainted; and stubborn… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is a common error, and the greater and more mischievous for being so common, to believe that repentance best becomes and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Yet reason frowns in war's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name; And mortgag'd states their grandsire's wreaths regret, From… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is a certain degree of temptation which will overcome any virtue. Now, in so far as you approach temptation to a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men who stand in the highest ranks of society seldom hear of their faults; if by any accident an opprobrious clamour reaches… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Guilt once harbored in the conscious breast, intimidates the brave, degrades the great. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Let us be quick to repent of injuries while repentance may not be a barren anguish. — 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
