Samuel Johnson

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

There are few things that we so unwillingly give up, even in advanced age, as the supposition that we still have the power of ingratiating ourselves with the fair sex.

I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea.

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Strivers achieve what dreamers believe.

Common sense is the best distributed thing in the world, for we all think we possess a good share of it.

This is no time for ease and comfort. It is the time to dare and endure.

Self-sacrifice enables us to sacrifice other people without blushing.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and all time.

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

Wisdom is better than silver and gold. I was hopeless, now I’m on hope road.

Who questions much, shall learn much, and retain much.

I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, ‘Verify your quotations.’

In the best, the friendliest and simplest relations flattery or praise is necessary, just as grease is necessary to keep wheels turning.

Of a truth, Knowledge is power, but it is a power reined by scruple, having a conscience of what must be and what may be; whereas Ignorance is a blind giant who, let him but wax unbound, would make it a sport to seize the pillars that hold up the long-wrought fabric of human good, and turn all the places of joy as dark as a buried Babylon.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.