Samuel Johnson

A cucumber should be well-sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out.

Samuel Johnson

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

Samuel Johnson

A fallible being will fail somewhere.

Samuel Johnson

A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.

Samuel Johnson

A few men are sufficient to broach falsehoods, which are afterwards innocently diffused by successive relaters.

Samuel Johnson

A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.

Samuel Johnson

A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

Samuel Johnson

A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say.

Samuel Johnson

A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.

Samuel Johnson

A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died; it was the triumph of hope over experience.

Samuel Johnson