Samuel Johnson

All travel has its advantages. If the passenger visits better countries, he may learn to improve his own. And if fortune carries him to worse, he may learn to enjoy it.

He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.

Tomorrow is an old deceiver, and his cheat never grows stale.

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

Friendship, ‘the wine of life,’ said Boswell, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed. And Dr. Johnson added to this A man, Sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair.

Write without pay until somebody offers to pay you. If nobody offers within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended for.

Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it.

If in doubt, don’t. If still in doubt, do what’s right.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Above all, we must avoid the pitfalls of tribalism. If we are divided among ourselves on tribal lines, we open our doors to foreign intervention and its potentially harmful consequences.

Be present in all things and thankful for all things.

The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.

Life is a quarry, out of which we are to mold and chisel and complete a character.

If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving.

Poets wish to profit or to please.

The public must and will be served.

There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life so. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.

It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.