A person loves to review his own mind. That is the use of a diary, or journal. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
People may be taken in once, who imagine that an author is greater in private life than other men. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is scarcely any writer who has not celebrated the happiness of rural privacy, and delighted himself and his reader with the… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
People seldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
When people find a man of the most distinguished abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that writes may be considered as a kind of general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; since he… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The chief advantage which these fictions have over real life is, that their authors are at liberty, though not to invent, yet… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Nay, Sir, those who write in them, write well, in order to be paid well. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He who writes much will not easily escape a manner, such a recurrence of particular modes as may be easily noted. — 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. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit; he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with… — 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
