Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The man who is asked by an author what he thinks of his work is put to the torture and is not… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world therefore swarms with writers whose… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few faults of style, whether real or imaginary, excite the malignity of a more numerous class of readers, than the use of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas; he that reads books of science, thogh… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them; and the difficulty in… — 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
While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among the numerous requisites that must concur to complete an author, few are of more importance than an early entrance into the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A transition from an author's book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It ought to be the first endeavour of a writer to distinguish nature from custom; or that which is established because it… — 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
You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Many causes may vitiate a writer's judgement of his own works. On that which has cost him much labour he sets a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive; and the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance are the writers who take advantage of present… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre. — 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
