Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is not difficult to conceive, however, that for many reasons a man writes much better than he lives. For without entering… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
It is, however, not necessary, that a man should forbear to write, till he has discovered some truth unknown before; he may… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man beginning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To love their country has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
There seems to be a strange affectation in authors of appearing to have done everything by chance. — 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
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 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
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
There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents;… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
..to write and to live are very different. Many who praise virtue, do no more than praise it. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration,… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Whoever desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn, the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and… — 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. The regard… — 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
I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary: it is all work, and my inducement to it is not love… — 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
