Samuel Johnson

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

Words will not fail when the matter is well considered.

Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there’s been a liberating force that’s come from it.

Columbus discovered no isle or key so lonely as himself.

The secret in education lies in respecting the student.

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

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

There are few virtues that the Poles do not possess and there are few errors they have ever avoided.

In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.

It is proved…that things cannot be other than they are, for since everything was made for a purpose, it follows that everything is made for the best purpose.

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

I am not an Athenian, nor a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.