Samuel Johnson

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them.

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

No one ever became great by imitation.

What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.

Fear came in so much in my life that it did everything but completely stop me.

The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true.

There is only one universal passion fear.

Fear is a useless emotion. Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility.

There’s an old German proverb to the effect that fear makes the wolf bigger than he is,and that is true.

Don’t be afraid of fear. Because it sharpens you, it challenges you, it makes you stronger; and when you run away from fear, you also run away from the opportunity to be your best possible self.

I am pretty fearless. You know why? Because I don’t handle fear very well; I’m not a good terrified person.

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.

Don’t ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn’t.

Do the thing you fear most and the death of fear is certain.

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.

I fear chiefly lest my expression may not be extravagant enough, may not wander far enough beyond the narrow limit of my daily experience, so as to be adequate to the truth of which I have been convinced. Extravagance! it depends on how you are yarded.

Don’t let your fears overwhelm your desire. Let the barriers you face, and there will be barriers, be external, not internal. Fortune does favor the bold, and I promise that you will never know what you’re capable of unless you try.