Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.

As to the rout that is made about people who are ruined by extravagance, it is no matter to the nation that some individuals suffer. When so much general productive exertion is the consequence of luxury, the nation does not care though there are debtors; nay, they would not care though their creditors were there too.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.

Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

The fortune which nobody sees makes a person happy and unenvied.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.

A wise man does not waste so good a commodity as lying for naught.

If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.

If a man will kick a fact out of the window, when he comes back he finds it again in the chimney corner.

It’s not burn baby burn, but learn, baby, learn, so that you can earn, baby, earn.

There is no private life which has not been determined by a wider public life.

Some are so very studious of learning what was done by the ancients that they know not how to live with the moderns.

Cities give us collision. ‘Tis said, London and New York take the nonsense out of a man.

Infancy conforms to nobody: all conform to it, so that one babe commonly makes four or five out of the adults who prattle and play to it.

To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think they get their moneys worth, except for these.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Fidelity has enfranchised slaves, and adopted servants to be sons.