Samuel Johnson

I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

It is wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.

Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.

I could not find the world if I searched ten years. I’ve forgotten the road by which I came.

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

To choose time is to save time.

Who’s not sat tense before his own heart’s curtain.

If you can’t forgive and forget, pick one.

Nothing is worth doing unless the consequences may be serious.

If one is lucky, a solitary fantasy can totally transform a million realities.

Life is a festival only to the wise.

I pay the schoolmaster, but it is the school boys who educate my son.

Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

Perfect freedom is reserved for the man who lives by his work and in that work he does what he wants to do.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work.

Ready are you? What know you of ready?

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.