New arts are long in the world before poets describe them; for they borrow everything from their predecessors, and commonly derive very little from nature or from life.
Samuel JohnsonPointed axioms and acute replies fly loose about the world, and are assigned successively to those whom it may be the fashion to celebrate.
Samuel JohnsonIf, sir, men were all virtuous, I should with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds neither wall, nor mountains, nor seas could afford any security.
Samuel Johnson