I am far from any intention to limit curiosity, or confine the labours of learning to arts of immediate and necessary use.… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Knowledge is praised and desired by multitudes whom her charms could never rouse from the couch of sloth; whom the faintest invitation… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is justly considered as the greatest excellency of art to imitate nature; but it is necessary to distinguish those parts of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Riches are of no value in themselves; their use is discovered only in that which they procure. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age. — 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
Books, says Lord Bacon, can never teach us the use of books; the student must learn by commerce with mankind to reduce… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone. — 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
A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical regard to morals and religion; he may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That distrust which intrudes so often on your mind is a mode of melancholy, which, if it be the business of a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily… — 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
The mathematicians are well acquainted with the difference between pure science, which has only to do with ideas, and the application of… — 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
...a common observation, that few are mended by imprisonment, and that he, whose crimes have made confinement necessary, seldom makes any other… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Keeping accounts, sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful;… — 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
