Samuel Johnson

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

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

Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.

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

The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.

There is a very fine line between loving life and being greedy for it.

Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.

We need much less than we think we need.

So far as a person thinks; they are free.

We falsely attribute to men a determined character, putting together all their yesterdays and averaging them, we presume we know them. Pity the man who has character to support, it is worse than a large family, he is the silent poor indeed.

We must set up a strong present tense against all rumors of wrath, past and to come.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

Reading maketh a full man; and writing an axact man. And, therefore, if a man write little, he need have a present wit; and if he read little, he need have much cunning to seem to know which he does not.

Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.

The three most important things a man has are, briefly, his private parts, his money, and his religious opinions.

One lesson we learn early, that in spite of seeming difference, men are all of one pattern. We readily assume this with our mates, and are disappointed and angry if we find that we are premature, and that their watches are slower than ours. In fact, the only sin which we never forgive in each other is difference of opinion.

Fortitude is the marshal of thought, the armor of the will, and the fort of reason.

Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.