Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)
British author, linguist and lexicographer.
That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge. Consider, sir; what is the purpose of courts of justice? It is, that every man may have his cause fairly tried, by men appointed to try causes. A lawyer is not to tell what he knows to be a lie: he is not to produce what he knows to be a false deed; but he is not to usurp the province of the jury and of the judge, and determine what shall be the effect of evidence — what shall be the result of legal argument.
Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going."
A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.
'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.
Catch then, O! catch the transient hour,
Improve each moment as it flies;
Life's a short Summer — man a flower,
He dies — alas! how soon he dies!
The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task."
But, scarce observ'd, the knowing and the bold
Fall in the gen'ral massacre of gold.
GRUBSTREET — The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
I am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those they provoke.
He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning.
Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted; let me serve Thee with active zeal, humbled confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge.
Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,
For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.
But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.