To be prejudiced is always to be weak; yet there are prejudices so near to laudable that they have been often praised and are always pardoned.
Samuel JohnsonAdvice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious. But for the same reason everyone is eager to instruct his neighbours. To be wise or to be virtuous is to buy dignity and importance at a high price; but when nothing is necessary to elevation but detection of the follies or faults of others, no man is so insensible to the voice of fame as to linger on the ground.
Samuel JohnsonThat kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.
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