Samuel Johnson

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

Among the calamities of war, may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.

The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live.

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

There are charms made only for distance admiration.

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other.

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

When any calamity has been suffered, the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped.

In the word of no master am I bound to believe.

We are just statistics, born to consume resources.

We know there is intention and purpose in the universe, because there is intention and purpose in us.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.