Quotes from Samuel Johnson

Others, with softer smiles, and subtler art, Can sap the principles, or taint the heart; With more address a lover's note convey, Or bribe a virgin's innocence away. Well may they rise, while I, whose rustic tongue Ne'er knew to puzzle right, or varnish wrong, Spurned as a beggar, dreaded as a spy, Live unregarded, unlamented die.   For

How gloomy would be these mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he shall never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on for ever. Those that lie here stretched before us, the wise and the powerful of ancient times, warn us to remember the shortness of our present state; they were, perhaps, snatched away while they were busy, like us, in the choice of life.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments; any enlargement of wishes is therefore equally destructive to happiness with the diminution of possession, and he that teaches another to long for what he never shall obtain is no less an enemy to his quiet than if he had robbed him of part of his patrimony.

What agreement is there between the hyena and the dog? and what peace between the rich and the poor?BibleEcclus,xiii. 18.2.

Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.

ALTAR  (A'LTAR)   n.s.[altare, Lat. It is observed by Junius, that the word altar is received, with christianity, in all the European languages; and that altare is used by one of the Fathers, as appropriated to the Christian worship, in opposition to the aræ of gentilism.]1. The place where offerings to heaven are laid. The goddess

Shakespeare opens a mine which contains gold and diamonds in unexhaustible plenty, though clouded by incrustations, debased by impurities, and mingled with a mass of meaner minerales.

ACROAMATICAL  (ACROAMA'TICAL)   adj.[   Gr. I bear.]Of or pertaining to deep learning; the opposite of exoterical.

ÆLF  (ÆLF)    (which, according to various dialects, is pronounced ulf, welph, hulph, hilp, helfe, and, at this day, helpe) implies assistance. So Ælfwin is victorious, and Ælfwold, an auxiliary governour; Ælfgisa, a lender of assistance: with which Boetius, Symmachus, Epicurus, &c. bear a plain analogy.Gibson'sCamden.

ADMINICLE  (ADMI'NICLE)   n.s.[adminiculum, Lat.] Help; support; furtherance.Dict.   ADMINICULAR  (ADMINI'CULAR)   adj.[from adminiculum, Lat.] That which gives help.Dict.

Sweet are the uses of adversity,Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.Shak.As you like it. Concerning deliverance itself from all adversity

God never accepts a good inclination instead of a good action, where that action may be done; nay, so much the contrary, that, if a good inclination be not seconded by a good action, the want of that action is made so much the more criminal and inexcusable.South'sSermons.3. Agency