Samuel Johnson

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.

The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.

Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.

We need only travel enough to give our intellects an airing.

All men make mistakes, but only wise men learn from their mistakes.

Knowledge is power.

This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being thoroughly worn out before you are thrown on the scrap heap; the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

To be furious in religion is to be irreligiously religious.

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.

The world will only, in the end, follow those who have despised as well as served it.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.

Events tend to recur in cycles.

I’ve also learned that a real mouth-smile always has an eye-smile to go with it. So watch out, I say, when someone smiles at you but his eyes stay the same. It’s sure to be a phony.

There is only one duty, only one safe course, and that is to try to be right.