If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.
Samuel JohnsonAll censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.
Samuel JohnsonThe main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence.
Samuel JohnsonThe most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs, and their subtlety surprises; but the reader commonly thinks his improvement dearly bought and, though he sometimes admires, is seldom pleased.
Samuel Johnson