Samuel Johnson

Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Go into the street, and give one man a lecture on morality, and another a shilling, and see which will respect you most.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it. There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.

The only way to know is to live, learn, and grow.

The key to every man is his thought. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

To accept some idea of truth without experiencing it is like a painting of a cake on paper which you can not eat.

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

Think with your whole body.

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven.

Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.

Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to be quite true.

Plenty of times I wanted to haul off when somebody insulted me for the color of my skin, but I had to hold to myself. I knew I was kind of an experiment. The whole thing was bigger than me.