I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Most vices may be committed very genteelly: a man may debauch his friend's wife genteelly: he may cheat at cards genteelly — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Most men are more willing to indulge in easy vices than to practise laborious virtues. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Pride is a vice, which pride itself inclines every man to find in others, and to overlook in himself — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The hour of reformation is always delayed; every delay gives vice another opportunity of fortifying itself by habit. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Avarice is a uniform and tractable vice; other intellectual distempers are different in different constitutions of mind. That which soothes the pride… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If misery be the effect of virtue, it ought to be reverenced; if of ill-fortune, to be pitied; and if of vice,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Religion informs us that misery and sin were produced together. The depravation of human will was followed by a disorder of the… — 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
No man, however enslaved to his appetites, or hurried by his passions, can, while he preserves his intellects unimpaired, please himself with… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
That friendship may be at once fond and lasting, there must not only be equal virtue on each part, but virtue of… — 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
