“The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.” — 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
About the beginning of the seventeenth century appeared a race of writers that may be termed the metaphysical poets. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness. — 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
Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery. — 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
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
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
Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a… — 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
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 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
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
The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day will often bring to his task attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an… — 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
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
We owe few of the rules of writing to the acuteness of critics, who have generally no other merit than that, having… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
No writer can be fully convicted of imitation except there is a concurrence of more resemblance than can be imagined to have… — 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
“Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his… — 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
...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
To read, write, and converse in due proportions, is, therefore, the business of a man of letters. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
“In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species.” — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much. — 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
There seems to be a strange affectation in authors of appearing to have done everything by chance. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share Image
Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence. — 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
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as… — 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
An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace. — 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
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
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
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
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
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
The basis of all excellence is truth: he that professes love ought to feel its power. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
“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
“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
Nobody has the right to put another under such a difficulty that he must either hurt the person by telling the truth or hurt… — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own self-esteem — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die. — Samuel Johnson Copy Share
