Quotes from Samuel Johnson

This therefore is the praise of Shakespeare, that his drama is the mirrour of life; that he who has mazed his imagination, in following the phantoms which other writers raise up before him, may here be cured of his delirious extasies, by reading human sentiments in human language; by scenes from which a hermit may estimate the transactions of the world, and a confessor predict the progress of the passions.

We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties; an event, which none but very perspicacious politicians are able to foresee. If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?

To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to enquire and answer enquiries, is the business of a scholar. He wanders about the world without pomp or terror, and is neither known nor valued but by men like himself.

Volumes have been written only to enumerate the miseries of the learned, and relate their unhappy lives and untimely deaths. To these mournful narratives I am about to add the Life of Richard Savage...

Bleed, bleed, poor country!Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure;For goodness dares not check thee!His title is affear'd.Shakesp.Macbeth.

What agreement is there between the hyena and the dog? and what peace between the rich and the poor?BibleEcclus,xiii. 18.2.

Your work is both good and original but the part which is original is not good and the part which is good is not original!

Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.

ALTAR  (A'LTAR)   n.s.[altare, Lat. It is observed by Junius, that the word altar is received, with christianity, in all the European languages; and that altare is used by one of the Fathers, as appropriated to the Christian worship, in opposition to the aræ of gentilism.]1. The place where offerings to heaven are laid. The goddess

Fiction cannot move so much, but that the attention may be easily transferred; and though it must be allowed that pleasing melancholy be sometimes interrupted by unwelcome levity, yet let it be considered likewise, that melancholy is often not pleasing, and that the disturbance of one man may be the relief of another; that different auditors have different habitudes; and that, upon the whole, all pleasure consists in variety.

The composition of Shakespeare is a forest, in which oaks extend in the air, interspersed sometimes with weeds and brambles, and sometimes giving shelting to myrtles and to roses; filling the eye with awful pomp, and gratifying the mind with endless diversity.

Shakespeare opens a mine which contains gold and diamonds in unexhaustible plenty, though clouded by incrustations, debased by impurities, and mingled with a mass of meaner minerales.

AMBRY  (A'MBRY)   n.s.[a word corrupted from almonry.]1. The place where the almoner lives, or where alms are distributed.2. The place where plate, and utensils for housekeeping, are kept; also a cupboard for keeping cold victuals:a word still used in the northern counties, and in Scotland.

Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win

Who will consider that no dictionary of a living tongue ever can be perfect, since, while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding, and some falling away; that a whole life cannot be spent upon syntax and etymology, and that even a whole life would not be sufficient; that he, whose design includes whatever language can express, must often speak of what he does not understand.

O, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

ACROAMATICAL  (ACROAMA'TICAL)   adj.[   Gr. I bear.]Of or pertaining to deep learning; the opposite of exoterical.

APERITIVE  (APE'RITIVE)   adj.[from aperio, Lat. to open.]That which has the quality of opening the excrementious passages of the body.

ACQUEST  (ACQU'EST)   n.s.[acquest, Fr. from acquerir, written by some acquist, with a view to the word acquire, or acquisita.]Attachment, acquisition; the thing gained. New acquests are more burden than strength.Bac.Hen. VII. Mud, reposed near the

ÆLF  (ÆLF)    (which, according to various dialects, is pronounced ulf, welph, hulph, hilp, helfe, and, at this day, helpe) implies assistance. So Ælfwin is victorious, and Ælfwold, an auxiliary governour; Ælfgisa, a lender of assistance: with which Boetius, Symmachus, Epicurus, &c. bear a plain analogy.Gibson'sCamden.

AMPHISCII  (AMPHI'SCII)   n.s.[Lat.    of alui and rj  a shadow.]Those people dwelling in climates, wherein the shadows, at different times of the year, fall both ways; to the north pole, when the sun is in the southern signs, and to the south pole, when he is in the northern signs. These are the people who inhabit the torrid zone.

ADMINICLE  (ADMI'NICLE)   n.s.[adminiculum, Lat.] Help; support; furtherance.Dict.   ADMINICULAR  (ADMINI'CULAR)   adj.[from adminiculum, Lat.] That which gives help.Dict.