Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
| NUMBER: | 1461 |
| AUTHOR: | Samuel Johnson (1709–84) |
| QUOTATION: | He who praises every body, praises nobody. |
| ATTRIBUTION: | Attributed to The anecdote which quotes this line was reprinted in The Works of Samuel Johnson, vol. 11 (Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions and Occasional Reflections), p. 216 (1787). According to George Birkbeck Hill, Johnsonian Miscellanies, vol. 2, pp. 1, 312 (1897, reprinted 1966), the author of this anecdote was George Steevens. |
| SUBJECTS: | Praise |