To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Men are like stone jugs - you may lug them where you like by the ears. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The authour who imitates his predecessors only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegances out of the same general magazine of literature,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones. — 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
A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man.… — 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
