Samuel Johnson

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

I know not, Madam, that you have a right, upon moral principles, to make your readers suffer so much.

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience; you will find it a calamity.

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

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

Who has not felt the beauty of a woman’s arm? The unspeakable suggestions of tenderness that lie in the dimpled elbow, and all the varied gently-lessening curves, down to the delicate wrist, with its tiniest, almost imperceptible nicks in the firm softness.

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.

The momentous thing in human life is the art of winning the soul to good or evil.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

The trouble with you Chicago people is that you think you are the best people down here, whereas you are merely the most numerous.

No man ever prayed heartily without learning something.

He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul’s estate.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

The pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet.

To regret deeply is to live afresh.

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers.

Suspicion amongst thoughts are like bats amongst birds, they never fly by twilight.