Samuel Johnson

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.

Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.

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.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

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.

The desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means of freedom and benefit.

It is a strange desire, to seek power and lose liberty, or to seek power over others and to lose power over a man’s self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains, and it is sometimes base; and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing.

It is hard to go beyond your public. If they are satisfied with cheap performance, you will not easily arrive at better. If they know what is good, and require it. you will aspire and burn until you achieve it. But from time to time, in history, men are born a whole age too soon.

Whenever you wish to do anything against the law, Cicely, always consult a good solicitor first.

That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

It appears to be a law that you cannot have a deep sympathy with both man and nature.

Switzerland is simply a large, lumpy, solid rock with a thin skin of grass stretched over it.

Where Example keeps pace with Authority, Power hardly fails to be obey’d.

Good breeding, a union of kindness and independence.

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

We need much less than we think we need.

Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere.

Oh man! There is no planet sun or star could hold you, if you but knew what you are.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.