Samuel Johnson

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

There mark what ills the scholar’s life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

No man was ever great by imitation.

Fame is the perfume of heroic deeds.

If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.

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

You will find only what you bring in.

The first step, my son, which one makes in the world, is the one on which depends the rest of our days.

Your most precious, valued possessions and your greatest powers are invisible and intangible. No one can take them. You, and you alone, can give them. You will receive abundance for your giving.

It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldom cures us of expectation, or has any effect other than that of producing a moral sentence or peevish exclamation.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated.

We are taught by great actions that the universe is the property of every individual in it.

To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.