Samuel Johnson

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

For who is pleased with himself.

Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.

The future is purchased by the present.

He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Humor is mankind’s greatest blessing.

The virtues of society are vices of the saint. The terror of reform is the discovery that we must cast away our virtues, or what we have always esteemed such, into the same pit that has consumed our grosser vices.

All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.

Rare virtues are like rare plants or animals, things that have not been able to hold their own in the world. A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner but more durable metal.

The man who forgives is far stronger than the man who fights.

All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense, but some are greater nonsense than others.

I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.

A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.

What terrible questions we are learning to ask! The former men believed in magic, by which temples, cities, and men were swallowed up, and all trace of them gone. We are coming on the secret of a magic which sweeps out of men’s minds all vestige of theism and beliefs which they and their fathers held and were framed upon.

Cure the disease and kill the patient.

Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.

So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person’s genius is confined to a very few hours.

An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.