I soon found that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries; that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Disease generally begins that equality which death completes; the distinctions which set one man so much above another are very little perceived… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Though it is evident, that not more than one age or people can deserve the censure of being more averse from learning… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A voyage to the moon, however romantick and absurd the scheme may now appear, since the properties of air have been better… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations of petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
...a man estimable for his learning, amiable for his life, and venerable for his piety. Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The hapless wit has his labors always to begin, the call for novelty is never satisfied, and one jest only raises expectation… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Moral sentences appear ostentatious and tumid, when they have no greater occasions than the journey of a wit to his home town:… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Wit will never make a man rich, but there are places where riches will always make a wit. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Remember that nothing will supply the want of prudence, and that negligence and irregularity long continued will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous,… — 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