Samuel Johnson

At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.

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.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.

Ah! Sir, a boy’s being flogged is not so severe as a man’s having the hiss of the world against him.

Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

Wisdom begins in wonder.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

What sort of philosophers are we, who know absolutely nothing about the origin and destiny of cats?

He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.

The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy; their real faults are immediately detected, and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an additional weight of calumny will be super added.

This self-love is the instrument of our preservation; it resembles the provision for the perpetuity of mankind: it is necessary, it is dear to us, it gives us pleasure, and we must conceal it.

Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.

Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.

The way by which you may get money almost without exception leads downward.

Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one.

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.

Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.