Samuel Johnson

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, rather, a manner of traveling.

It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose.

Gold will be slave or master.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

When you introduce a moral lesson, let it be brief.

We’re so infatuated with studying labels that we forget to read between the lines of one another.

Say a word, say a thousand to me on the telephone and I shall choose the wrong one to cling to as though you had said it after long deliberation when only I provoked it from you, I will cling to it from among a thousand, to be provoked and hurl it back with something I mean no more than you meant that, something for you to cling to and retreat clinging to.

I see the whole concept of Generation X implies that everyone has lost hope.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Few women, I fear, have had such reason as I have to think the long sad years of youth were worth living for the sake of middle age.

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.

Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

Each thought that is welcomed and recorded is a nest egg by the side of which more will be laid.

The happiest part of a man’s life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.