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Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is to common understandings of little use.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
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Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Much
Greatest
Heads
Understandings
Understanding
Readers
Particulars
Common
Lays
Extensive
Use
Throw
Multitude
Part
Details
Comprehension
Littles
Rules
Multitudes
Nicety
Little
General
Detail
Disgusts
Writing
Reader
Disgusting
Niceties

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To build is to be robbed.
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I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession.
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Men have been wise in many different modes but they have always laughed the same way.
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Ladies, stock and tend your hive, Trifle not at thirty-five For, howe'er we boast and strive, Life declines from thirty-five He that ever hopes to thrive Must begin by thirty-five.
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The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside
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Read the book you do honestly feel a wish and curiosity to read.
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It is in refinement and elegance that the civilized man differs from the savage.
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Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
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Justice is indispensably and universally necessary, and what is necessary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct
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He that never thinks can never be wise.
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Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
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Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner.
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When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.
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If 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.
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There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.
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men do not suspect faults which they do not commit
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The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence.
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Gayety is to good-humor as perfumes to vegetable fragrance: the one overpowers weak spirits the other recreates and revives them.
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So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
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Every other enjoyment malice may destroy every other panegyric envy may withhold but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.
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