Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Of those which still continue in the state of aliens, and have made no approaches towards assimilation, some seem necessary to be retained, because the purchasers of the Dictionary will expect to find them. Such are many words in the common law, as capias, habeas corpus, præmunire, nisi prius: such are some terms of controversial divinity, as hypostasis; and of physick, as the names of diseases; and

ALKAHEST  (A'LKAHEST)   n.s.A word used first by Paracelsus, and adopted by his followers, to signify an universal dissolvent, or liquour, which has the power of resolving all things into their first principles.

ALOGY  (A'LOGY)   n.s. Unreasonableness; absurdity.Dict.

ABDITIVE  (A'BDITIVE)   adj.[from abdo, to hide.] That which has the power or quality of hiding.Dict.  

has been demanded, on one hand, that men should write as they speak; but, as it has been shown that this conformity never was attained in any language, and that it is not more easy to persuade men to agree exactly in speaking than in writing, it may be asked, with equal propriety, why men do not rather speak as they write. In

He therefore that would govern his actions by the laws of virtue, must regulate his thoughts by those of reason;  he must keep guilt from the recesses of his heart, and remember that the pleasures of fancy, and the emotions of desire, are more dangerous as they are more hidden, since they escape the awe of observation, and operate equally in every situation, without the concurrence of external opportunities.

The expectation of ignorance is indefinite, and that of knowledge is often tyrannical.

ALKALI  (A'LKALI)   n.s.[The word alkali comes from an herb, called by the Egyptians kali; by us glasswort.] This

Methinks, though a man had all science, and all principles, yet it might not be amiss to have some conscience.Tillots.Pref.5. Wrong;

Indeed Johnson was very sensible how much he owed to Mr. Hunter. Mr. Langton one day asked him how he had acquired so accurate a knowledge of Latin, in which, I believe, he was exceeded by no man of his time; he said, 'My master whipt me very well. Without that, Sir, I should have done nothing.' He told Mr. Langton, that while Hunter was flogging his boys unmercifully, he used to say, 'And this I do to save you from the gallows.

All change is of itself an evil, which ought not to be hazarded but for evident advantage; and

To ABDUCE  (ABDU'CE)   v.a.[Lat. abduco.]To draw to a different part; to withdraw one part from another.A word chiefly used in physic or science. And if we abduce the eye unto either corner, the object will not duplicate; for, in that position, the axis of the cones remain in the same plain, as is demonstrated in the optics delivered by Galen.Brown'sVulgar Errours,b. iii. c. 20.

If we make the praise or blame of others the rule of our conduct, we shall be distracted by a boundless variety of irreconcilable judgments, be held in perpetual suspense between contrary impulses, and consult forever without determination.

By tracing in this manner every word to its original, and not admitting, but with great caution, any of which no original can be found, we shall secure our language from being overrun with cant, from being crowded with low terms, the spawn of folly or affectation, which arise from no just principles of speech, and of which, therefore, no legitimate derivation can be shown.

The work is performed, first by railing at the stupidity, negligence, ignorance, and asinine tastelessness of the former editors

Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment.

AGALAXY  (A'GALAXY)   n.s.[Gr.] Want of milk.Dict.

And buxom, which means only obedient, is now made, in familiar phrases, to stand for wanton; because in an ancient form of marriage, before the Reformation, the bride promised complaisance and obedience, in these terms: I will be bonair and buxom in bed and at board.

AMEL  (A'MEL)   n.s.[email, Fr.]The matter with which the variegated works are overlaid, which we call enamelled. The materials of glass melted with calcined tin, compose an undiaphanous body. This white amel is the basis of all those fine concretes that goldsmiths and artificers

ALPHA  (A'LPHA)   n.s.The first letter in the Greek alphabet, answering to our A; therefore used to signify the first. I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.BibleRevelat.

ANTRE  (A'NTRE)   [antre, Fr. antrum, Lat.]A cavern; a cave; a den. With all my travels history:Wherein of antres vast, and desarts idle,It was my hent to speak.Shakesp.Othello.

This is that conquest of the world and of ourselves, which has been always considered as the perfection of human nature; and this is only to be obtained by fervent prayer, steady resolutions, and frequent retirement from folly and vanity, from the cares of avarice, and the joys of intemperance, from the lulling sounds of deceitful flattery, and the tempting sight of prosperous wickedness.

Some species there be of middle natures, that is, of bird and beast, as batts; yet are their parts so set together, that we cannot define the beginning or end of either, there being a commixtion of both, rather than adaptation or cement of the one unto the other.Brown'sVulgar Errours,b. iii. c. ii.

This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.