Samuel Johnson

No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.

Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity.

When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation.

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.

The ancestor of every action is a thought.

My religion? Well, my dear, I am a Millionaire. That is my religion.

So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldnt find honest employment.

Stay with me,’ he said, ‘until the sun goes out, the seas are parched, and the wind draws its last breath.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.

For character too is a process and an unfolding… among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protuberant there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.

Too often the strong, silent man is silent only because he does not know what to say, and is reputed strong only because he has remained silent.

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before.

Measure your health by your sympathy with morning and spring. If there is no response in you to the awakening of nature – if the prospect of an early morning walk does not banish sleep, if the warble of the first bluebird does not thrill you – know that the morning and spring of your life are past. Thus may you feel your pulse.

Friendship is the marriage of the soul, and this marriage is liable to divorce.