Shows Quotes by Samuel Johnson

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is…

— Samuel Johnson

It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows…

— Samuel Johnson

All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.

— Samuel Johnson

There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree…

— Samuel Johnson

In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of…

— Samuel Johnson

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part…

— Samuel Johnson

The maxim of Cleobulus, "Mediocrity is best," has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and…

— Samuel Johnson

How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such…

— Samuel Johnson

To be flattered is grateful, even when we know that our praises are not believed by those who pronounce them; for they…

— Samuel Johnson

It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his…

— Samuel Johnson

The mere power of saving what is already in our hands must be of easy acquisition to every mind; and as the…

— Samuel Johnson

Advice is offensive, not because it lays us open to unexpected regret, or convicts us of any fault which had escaped our…

— Samuel Johnson

No cause more frequently produces bashfulness than too high an opinion of our own importance. He that imagines an assembly filled with…

— Samuel Johnson

A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view,…

— Samuel Johnson

It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of…

— Samuel Johnson

Solitude is the surest nurse of all prurient passions, and a girl in the hurry of preparation, or tumult of gaiety, has…

— Samuel Johnson

The imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude of…

— Samuel Johnson

An Italian philosopher said that "time was his estate"; an estate indeed which will produce nothing without cultivation, but will always abundantly…

— Samuel Johnson