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It is one of the maxims of the civil law, that definitions are hazardous.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Hazardous
Maxims
Definitions
Civil
Law

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He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
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The friendship which is to be practised or expected by common mortals, must take its rise from mutual pleasure, and must end when the power ceases of delighting each other.
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With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity.
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Wretched un-idea'd girls.
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This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.
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Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding can expect only to improve a single science.
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Life cannot subsist in society but by reciprocal concessions.
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What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
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Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
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Ignorance cannot always be inferred from inaccuracy knowledge is not always present.
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Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
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Nature never gives everything at once.
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Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
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Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent conciousness of guilt. Alas, it is only wisdom which perceives this tragedy.
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Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
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Wealth is nothing in itself it is not useful but when it departs from us.
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The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.
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Words are but the signs of ideas.
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The present time is seldom able to fill desire or imagination with immediate enjoyment, and we are forced to supply its deficiencies by recollection or anticipation.
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