Samuel Johnson

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

Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works. An assault upon a town is a bad thing; but starving it is still worse.

Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.

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.

When you get there, there isn’t any there there.

I’m a bit superstitious about certain things, like what shoes to wear. If I wear the wrong shoes, the whole day may go wrong. Or if I don’t get to the bottom of the stairs before the door closes – stupid little things like that. Then I also have all the normal ones, like don’t walking under ladders and so on.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

To follow the path, look to the master, follow the master, walk with the master, see through the master, become the master.

Zen is not an art, it’s not a religion. It’s a realisation.

Live happily in the present moment. It is the only moment we have.

I come to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and stars.

The less you respond to negative people, the more peaceful your life will become.

It’s all God’s will: you can die in your sleep, and God can spare you in battle.

I find it interesting that the meanest life, the poorest existence, is attributed to God’s will, but as human beings become more affluent, as their living standard and style begin to ascend the material scale, God descends the scale of responsibility at a commensurate speed.

Mind your thoughts, as they become your words. Mind your words, as they become your actions. Mind your actions, as they become you.

If something is easy for you, work on it a little. If it’s hard for you, work on it a lot.

All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

I believe God is managing affairs and that He doesn’t need any advice from me. With God in charge, I believe everything will work out for the best in the end. So what is there to worry about.

I believe a man is better anchored who has a belief in the Supreme Being.