Quotes from Samuel Johnson

To ADMOVE  (ADMO'VE)   v.a.[admoveo, Lat.]To bring one thing to another. If, unto the powder of loadstone or iron, we admove the northpole of the loadstone, the powders, or small divisions, will erect and conform themselves thereto.Brown'sVulgar Errours,b. ii.

Ng??i tiêu xài nhi?u nhÆ° ti?t ki?m ???c chính là ng??i hài lòng nh?t, b?i anh ta có c? hai ni?m vui.

The cankered passion of envy is nothing akin to the silly envy of the ass.L'Estrange,Fab.xxxviii.

AMENTACEOUS  (AMENTA'CEOUS)   adj.[amentatus, Lat.]Hanging as by a thread. The pine tree hath amentaceous flowers or katkins.Miller.   

To a poet nothing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little.

To indulge the power of fiction, and send imagination out upon the wing, is often the sport of those [...] He who has nothing external that can divert him, must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is?

ALLODIUM  (ALLO'DIUM)   n.s.[A word of very uncertain derivation, but most probably of German original.]A possession held in absolute independence, without any acknowledgment of a lord paramount. It is opposed to fee, or feudum, which intimates some kind of dependance. There are no allodial lands in England, all being held either mediately or immediately of the king.

APHETA  (APHE'TA)   n.s.[with astrologers.] The name of the plant, which is imagined to be the giver or disposer of life in a nativity.Dict.

How small of all that human hearts endure That part which laws or kings can cuse or cure!

Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome. -

ABLEPSY  (A'BLEPSY)   n.s.[   Gr.] Want of sight, natural blindness; also unadvisedness.Dict.

ABOUT  (ABO'UT)   prep.[abutan, or abuton, Sax. which seems to signify encircling on the outside.]1. Round, surrounding, encircling. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thy heart.BibleProverbs,iii. 3.

AFER  (A'FER)   n.s.[Lat.]The southwest wind. With adverse blast upturns them from the south,Notus, and Afer, black with thund'rous clouds,From Sierra Liona.Milton'sParadise Lost,b. x.

Shakespeare regarded more the series of ideas, than of words; and his language, not being designed for the reader's desk, was all that he desired it to be, if it conveyed his meaning to the audience.

What an opinion will afterages entertain of their religion, who bid fair for a gibbet, by endeavouring to bring in a superstition, which their forefathers perished in flames to keep out.Addison'sFreeholder,No 1.

APLUSTRE  (APLU'STRE)   n.s.[Latin.]The ancient ensign carried in sea vessels. The one holds a sword in her hand, to represent the Iliad, as the other has an aplustre, to represent the Odyssey, or voyage of Ulysses.Addison.

ALLONGE  (ALLO'NGE)   n.s.[allonge, Fr.]A pass or thrust with a rapier, so called from the lengthening of the space taken up by the fencer.

ABASED  (ABA'SED)   adj.[with heralds] is a term used of the wings of eagles, when the top looks downwards towards the point of the shield; or when the wings are shut; the natural way of bearing them being spread with the top pointing to the chief of the angle.Bailey.Chambers.

the mind, in weariness or leisure, recurs constantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the luscious falsehood whenever she is offended with the bitterness of truth.

AFFABLE  (A'FFABLE)   adj.[affable, Fr. affabilis, Lat.]1. Easy of manners; accostable; courteous; complaisant. It is used of superiours. He was affable, and both well and fair spoken

Sounds are too volatile and subtile for legal restraints; to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind, are equally the undertakings of pride, unwilling to measure its desires by its strength.

How little this is the state of our country, needs not to be told. The edicts of an English academy would, probably, be read by many, only that they may be sure to disobey them.

Sometimes, and most frequently, compassion and complaint. In youth alone, unhappy mortals live; But, ah! the mighty bliss is fugitive: Discolour'd sickness, anxious labour come, And age

To ABATE  (ABA'TE)   v.a.[from the French abbatre, to beat down.]1. To lessen, to diminish.