Samuel Johnson

Security will produce danger.

Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

Nature has made up her mind that what cannot defend itself shall not be defended.

Vanity is as ill at ease under indifference as tenderness is under a love which it cannot return.

The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.

How can what an Englishman believes be hearsay? It is a contradiction in terms.

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.

An honest man is always a child.

Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gongthese are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.

Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other.

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy. Collect and learn them; they are notable measures of directions for human life; you have much in little; they save time in speaking; and upon occasion may be the fullest and safest answer.

How pleasant it is for a father to sit at his child’s board. It is like an aged man reclining under the shadow of an oak which he has planted.

Woman is a ray of God. She is not that earthly beloved: she is creative, not created.

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

Nothing is pleasant that is not spiced with variety.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.