Samuel Johnson

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial “we.”

A perfectly healthy sentence, it is true, is extremely rare. For the most part we miss the hue and fragrance of the thought; as if we could be satisfied with the dews of the morning or evening without their colors, or the heavens without their azure.

Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?

A sect or party is an incognito devised to save man from the vexation of thinking.

The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.

The gap that’s opened I’m filling with fairy dust, hues of the heart and a joy for life what was… I invite to exit right quietly, in shades of black and white.

But most of us are apt to settle within ourselves that the man who blocks our way is odious, and not to mind causing him a little of the disgust which his personality excites in ourselves.

He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

No one can make you feel inferior without your permission.