"Cucumber should be well sliced, dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out."
"A simile, to be perfect, must both illustrate and ennoble the subject; must show it to the understanding in a clearer view, and display it to the fancy with greater dignity; but either of these qualities may be sufficient to recommend it.... That it may be complete, it is required to exhibit, independently of its references, a pleasing image; for a simile is said to be a short episode."
3 likes
Source: Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British poets completed by W. Hazlitt”, p.226
About the author
Same author
More quotes by Samuel Johnson
"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
"Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."
"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not."
"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."
"Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world."