Samuel Johnson

The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a read more

The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased read more

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 A student may easily exhaust read more

Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 A student may easily exhaust his life in comparing divines and moralists without any practical regard to morals and religion; he may be learning not to live but to reason... while the chief use of his volumes is unthought of, his mind is unaffected, and his life is unreformed.

Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate read more

Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest;
Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is read more

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.