The love of fame is a passion natural and universal, which no man, however high or mean, however wise or ignorant, was yet able to despise.
Samuel JohnsonModern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
Samuel JohnsonIf lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim.
Samuel JohnsonSorrow is properly that state of the mind in which our desires are fixed upon the past without looking forward to the future.
Samuel JohnsonIn a time of war the nation is always of one mind, eager to hear something good of themselves and ill of the enemy. At this time the task of the news-writer is easy; they have nothing to do but to tell that a battle is expected, and afterwards that a battle has been fought, in which we and our friends, whether conquering or conquered, did all, and our enemies did nothing.
Samuel Johnson