The works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 11 |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able action allowed appear Aristophanes beauty believe called cause censure character comedy common considered continue danger desire discovered easily effect endeavoured equally Evil examine excellence expected eyes favour fear followed force frequently friends genius give given greater Habit hands happiness honour hope human imagination important interest judge kind knowledge known labour learned least less letters lives look mankind manner means ment mentioned mind nature necessary never objects observed occasion once opinion pass passions performance perhaps Plautus pleasure poet present produced publick question reader reason received regard religion rest says scarcely seems sometimes soon success suffer sufficient suppose surely taste thing thought tion true truth universal virtue whole wish writer
Popular passages
Page 475 - Fortunate senex! ergo tua rura manebunt, Et tibi magna satis; quamvis lapis omnia nudus, Limosoque palus obducat pascua junco: Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula foetas, Nee mala vicini pecoris contagia loedent.
Page 318 - This praise the general interest of mankind requires to be given to writers who please and do not corrupt, who instruct and do not weary. But to them all human eulogies are vain, whom I believe applauded by angels, and numbered with the juat.
Page 516 - ... a generation of Amazons of the pen, who with the spirit of their predecessors have set masculine tyranny at defiance, asserted their claim to the regions of science, and seem resolved to contest the usurpations of virility.
Page 372 - The gates of hell are open night and day ; Smooth the descent, and easy is the way : But, to return, and view the cheerful skies — In this the task and mighty labour lies.
Page 416 - Horace becomes graceful and familiar ; and that such a compliment was at least possible, we know from the transformation feigned by Horace of himself. The most elegant compliment that was paid to Addison, is of this obscure and perishable kind ; When panting Virtue her last efforts made, You brought your Clio to the virgin's aid.
Page 242 - Johnson candidly describes himself as " a hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has for many years diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant ; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool ; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnights, and with tea welcomes the morning.
Page 274 - Abelard; while the facts and characters alluded to in his late writings will be forgotten and unknown, and their poignancy and propriety little relished ; for wit and satire are transitory and perishable, but nature and passion are eternal.
Page 270 - Nothing but experience could evince the frequency of false information, or enable any man to conceive that so many groundless reports should be propagated, as every man of eminence may hear of himself. Some men relate what they think, as what they know ; some men of confused memories and habitual inaccuracy, ascribe [ 34 ] to one man what belongs to another; and some talk on, without thought or care.
Page 498 - Two men examining the same question proceed commonly like the physician and gardener in. selecting herbs, or the farmer and hero looking on the plain ; they bring minds impressed with different notions, and direct their inquiries to different ends ; they form, therefore, contrary conclusions, and each wonders at the other's absurdity. We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves.
Page 450 - Paris in his twenty-first year, and affixed on the gate of the college of Navarre a kind of challenge to the learned of that...