Samuel Johnson ( 10 of 197 )
The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a read more
The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow.
Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 It is by affliction chiefly read more
Feast of Lucy, Martyr at Syracuse, 304 Commemoration of Samuel Johnson, Writer, Moralist, 1784 It is by affliction chiefly that the heart of man is purified, and that the thoughts are fixed on a better state. Prosperity has power to intoxicate the imagination, to fix the mind upon the present scene, to produce confidence and elation, and to make him who enjoys affluence and honors forget the hand by which they were bestowed. It is seldom that we are otherwise than by affliction awakened to a sense of our imbecility, or taught to know how little all our acquisitions can conduce to safety or quiet, and how justly we may inscribe to the superintendence of a higher power those blessings which in the wantonness of success we considered as the attainments of our policy and courage.
An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
An age that melts with unperceiv'd decay,
And glides in modest innocence away.
Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as
none at all, but not quite.
Fanatical religion driven to a certain point is almost as bad as
none at all, but not quite.
As any action or posture long continued will distort and
disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled read more
As any action or posture long continued will distort and
disfigure the limbs; so the mind likewise is crippled and
contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas.
Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.
Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.
Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.
Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner
does he take a pen in read more
Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner
does he take a pen in his hand, than it becomes a torpedo to him,
and benumbs all his faculties.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
