Samuel Johnson

Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost, must always end in pain.

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

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

Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

In peace, as a wise man, he should make suitable preparation for war.

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

I was young and foolish then; now I am old and foolisher.

In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it.

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

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

If I shall sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I’m sure that, for me, there would be nothing left worth living for.

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.

All the diversity, all the charm, and all the beauty of life are made up of light and shade.

It’s a good thing to be foolishly gay once in a while.

Our most important task is to transform our consciousness so that violence is no longer an option for us in our personal lives, that understanding that a world of peace is possible only if we relate to each other as peaceful beings, one individual at a time.

No thought, no reflection, no analysis, no cultivation, no intention; let it settle itself.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.

Don’t learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world.

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.