The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.
Samuel JohnsonSmall debts are like small shot; they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon; of loud noise, but little danger.
Samuel JohnsonIf in an actor there appears an utter vacancy of meaning, a frigid equality, a stupid languor, a torpid apathy, the greatest kindness that can be shown him is a speedy sentence of expulsion.
Samuel JohnsonHappiness," said he, "must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
Samuel JohnsonEvery man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.
Samuel Johnson