Good breeding consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners.
Samuel JohnsonExtended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
Samuel JohnsonCowardice encroaches fast upon such as spend their lives in company of persons higher than themselves.
Samuel JohnsonPhilosophy has often attempted to repress insolence by asserting that all conditions are leveled by death; a position which, however it may defect the happy, will seldom afford much comfort to the wretched.
Samuel JohnsonI am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed.
Samuel JohnsonExactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There may possibly be books without a polished language, but there can be no polished language without books.
Samuel Johnson