Samuel Johnson

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.

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.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original.

There is nothing, Sir, too little for so little a creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great art of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.

One little bird not larger than a sparrow, it may have been a Phalarope, would alight on the turbulent surface where the breakers were five or six feet high, and float buoyantly there like a duck, cunningly taking to its wings and lifting itself a few feet through the air over the foaming crest of each breaker, but sometimes outriding safely a considerable billow which hid it some seconds, when its instinct told it that it would not break. It was a little creature thus to sport with the ocean, but it was as perfect a success in its way as the breakers in theirs.

Often the surest way to convey misinformation is to tell the strict truth.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations.

Today, you can decide to walk in freedom. You can choose to walk differently. You can walk as a free person, enjoying every step.

Property is organized robbery.

It is in life as it is in ways, the shortest way is commonly the foulest, and surely the fairer way is not much about.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

Arguments of convenience lack integrity and inevitably trip you up.

A good scare is worth more than good advice.

Artists must be sacrificed to their art.

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

The people are to be taken in small doses.

All good things are cheap: all bad are very dear.

Courage is rightly considered the foremost of the virtues, for upon it, all others depend.