Samuel Johnson

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

He who praises every body, praises nobody.

Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

They teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.

Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

A crank is someone with a new idea – until it catches on.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

The serpent if it wants to become the dragon must eat itself.

Write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that come unsought for are commonly the most valuable.

How we glow over these novels of passion, when the story is told with any spark of truth and nature! And what fastens attention, in the intercourse of life, like any passage betraying affection between two parties? Perhaps we never saw them before and never shall meet them again. But we see them exchange a glance or betray a deep emotion, and we are no longer strangers. We understand them and take the warmest interest in the development of the romance. All mankind love a lover.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.

What fugitive from his country can also escape from himself.

It is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better.

Everything that is made beautiful and fair and lovely is made for the eye of one who sees.

Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves.

You cannot kill time without injuring eternity.