Samuel Johnson

It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.

There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow, but there is something in it so like virtue, that he who is wholly without it cannot be loved.

The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principal subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment. If it be asked, what is the improper expectation which it is dangerous to indulge, experience will quickly answer, that it is such expectation as is dictated not by reason, but by desire; expectation raised, not by the common occurrences of life, but by the wants of the expectant; an expectation that requires the common course of things to be changed, and the general rules of action to be broken.

There are charms made only for distant admiration.

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time.

So of cheerfulness, or a good temper, the more it is spent, the more it remains.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

Go fish and hunt far and wide day by day – farther and wider – and rest thee by many brooks and hearth-sides without misgiving. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Rise free from care before the dawn, and seek adventures. Let the noon find thee by other lakes, and the night overtake thee everywhere at home. There are no larger fields than these, no worthier games than may here be played.

I think if we go back and check our record, the Negro has proven beyond a doubt that we have been more than patient in seeking our rights as American citizens.

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay, or dislike hourly increased by causes too slender for complaint, and too numerous for removal.

If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

He that gives good advice builds with one hand; he that gives good counsel and example builds with both.

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends. I have savored to the full all the small, daily joys. The bright sunshine on the breakfast table; the smell of the air at dusk; the sound of the clock ticking; the light rains that start gently after midnight; the hour when the family come home; Sunday-evening tea before the fire! I have never missed one moment of beauty, not even taken it for granted. Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I wish I had failed as little in other ways.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.

Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being?

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.

Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.