Quotes from Samuel Johnson

To ACCROACH  (ACCRO'ACH)   v.a.[accrocher, Fr.]To draw to one as with a hook; to gripe, to draw away by degrees what is another's.

The memory of useful things may receive considerable aid, if they are thrown into verse.Watts'sImprovement of the Mind. Your patrimonial stores in peace possess;Undoubted all your filial claim confess:Your private right should impious power invade,The peers of Ithaca would arm in aid.Pope'sOdyssey,b. i.2.

To ACCUMB  (ACCU'MB)   v.a.[accumbo, Lat.] To lie at the table, according to the ancient manner.Dict.   ACCUMBENT  (ACCU'MBENT)   adj.[accumbens, Lat.]Leaning. The Roman recumbent, or, more properly, accumbent posture in eating, was introduced after the first Punic war.Arbuthnoton Coins.   

Parents never give allowances for an innocent passion.Swift.6. Established

To ADVESPERATE  (ADVE'SPERATE)   v.n.[advespero, Lat.] To draw towards evening.Dict.

To correspond to; to suit with. In water face answereth to face: so the heart of man to man.BibleProv.xxvii. 19.7.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

It very seldom happens to man that his business is his pleasure. What is done from necessity is so often to be done when against the present inclination, and so often fills the mind with anxiety, that an habitual dislike steals upon us, and we shrink involuntarily from the remembrance of our task. This is the reason why almost every one wishes to quit his employment; he does not like another state, but is disgusted with his own.

ALLUMINOR  (ALLU'MINOR)   n.s.[allumer, Fr. to light.] One who colours or paints upon paper or parchment; because he gives graces, light an ornament, to the letters or figures coloured.Cowell. 

ACCUSTOMANCE  (ACCU'STOMANCE)   n.s.[accoûtumance, Fr.]Custom, habit, use. Through accustomance and negligence, and perhaps some other causes, we neither feel it in our own bodies, nor take notice of it in others.Boyle'sWorks.

Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man's life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.

ALMANDINE  (A'LMANDINE)   n.s.[Fr. almandina, Ital.] A ruby coarser and lighter than the oriental, and nearer the colour of the granate.Dict.

All crimes are safe, but hated poverty. This, only this, the rigid law pursues, This

One must never be either content with, or impatient with, oneself.

sheers.Garth'sDispensat.2. A reproachful name for a dark complexion. Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots.Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet.3. A

GURGE  (GURGE)   n.s.[gurges, Latin.]Whirlpool; gulf. Marching from Eden he shall findThe plain, wherein a black bituminous gurgeBoils out from under ground.Milton'sParadise Lost,b. xii.

When a man knows he is to be hanged in the morning, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

ACCOSTABLE  (ACCO'STABLE)   adj.[from accost.]Easy of access; familiar. They were both indubitable, strong, and high-minded men, yet of sweet and accostable nature, almost equally delighting in the press and affluence of dependents and suitors.Wotton.

ALMONDS  (A'LMONDS)  OF THE THROAT, or TONSILS, called

To AFTEREYE  (A'FTEREYE)   v.a.[from after and eye.]To keep one in view; to follow in view. Thou shouldst have made himAs little as a crow, or less, ere leftTo aftereye him.Shakespeare'sCymbeline.

ALMOND-FURNACE  (A'LMOND-FURNACE)    or A'LMAN-FURNACE, called also the Sweep, is a peculiar kind of furnace used in refining, to separate metals from cinders and other foreign substances.Chambers.

ANASTROPHE  (ANA'STROPHE)   n.s.[  a preposterous placing, from    figure whereby words which should have been precedent, are postponed.

He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.

ADVENTURE  (ADVE'NTURE)   n.s.[French.]1. An accident; a chance; a hazard; an event of which we have no direction. The general summoned three castles that were near: one desperate of succour, and not desirous to dispute the defence, presently yielded; but two stood upon their adventure.Sir John Hayward.2. In this sense is used the phrase, at all adventures;[à l'adventure, Fr.]By chance; without any rational scheme.