Samuel Johnson

Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.

The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a years.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.

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.

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression.

There is only one good – knowledge; and only one evil – ignorance.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

We bust build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.

Knowledge is power.

Life is a series of surprises and would not be worth taking or keeping if it were not.

Upon retiring, sleep as if you had entered your last sleep. Upon awakening, leave your bed behind you instantly as if you had cast away a pair of old shoes.

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

Wake up, you’ve been sleeping. Take up your bed and walk. Stop blaming other people. Oh, it’s nobody else’s fault.

The connection between us runs so strong and deep. It’s like a steel cable stretching across the ocean bed, so many fathoms below, that even the most skilled and courageous of deep sea divers cannot reach it to cut it. It remains strong, silent, invisible, invincible.

It requires nothing less than a chivalric feeling to sustain a conversation with a lady.

This ain’t fun. But you watch me, I’ll get it done.

It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it.

You don’t stop laughing when you grow old, you grow old when you stop laughing.