Samuel Johnson

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

Sir, I have no objection to a man’s drinking wine, if he can do it in moderation. I found myself apt to go to excess in it, and therefore, after having been for some time without it, on account of illness, I thought it better not to return to it. Every man is to judge for himself, according to the effects which he experiences.

You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it; for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize

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

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He’ll beat you all at piety.

The important work of moving the world forward does not wait to be done by perfect men.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

If you miss the present moment, you miss your appointment with life. That is very serious!

It is as natural to die as to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful as the other.

What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter, which lie close together to keep each other warm.

Where charity keeps pace with grain, industry is blessed, but to slave to get, and keep it sordidly, is a sin against Providence, a vice in government and an injury to their neighbours.

There’s not an American in this country free until every one of us is free.

The world is upheld by the veracity of good men: they make the earth wholesome. They who lived with them found life glad and nutritious. Life is sweet and tolerable only in our belief in such society.

There is nothing capricious in nature and the implanting of a desire indicates that its gratification is in the constitution of the creature that feel it.

No one won the last war, and no one will win the next war.

Be virtuous and you will be eccentric.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

Defeat in itself was part and parcel of the great gambling game of politics. A man who could not accept it and try again was not of the stuff of which leaders are made.