Every reader should remember the diffidence of Socrates, and repair by his candour the injuries of time: he should impute the seeming… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is reason to suspect, that the distinctions of mankind have more show than value, when it is found that all agree… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom nature has made weak, and… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To be prejudiced is always to be weak; yet there are prejudices so near to laudable that they have been often praised… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
False taste is always busy to mislead those that are entering upon the regions of learning; and the traveller, uncertain of his… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In writing, as in life, faults are endured without disgust when they are associated with transcendent merit, and may be sometimes recommended… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Gayety is to good-humor as perfumes to vegetable fragrance: the one overpowers weak spirits; the other recreates and revives them. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Gaiety is to good-humor as animal perfumes to vegetable fragrance. The one overpowers weak spirits, the other recreates and revives them. Gaiety… — 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
