Samuel Johnson

The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener is necessary to the accommodation of all those who desire to be confirmed in the opinion of their own wisdom: a patient listener, however, is not always to be had; the present age, whatever age is present, is so vitiated and disordered, that young people are readier to talk than to attend, and good counsel is only thrown away upon those who are full of their own perfections.

Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

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

It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.

Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.

Man was born to be rich, or grow rich by use of his faculties, by the union of thought with nature. Property is an intellectual production. The game requires coolness, right reasoning, promptness, and patience in the players.

In the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am – unbound.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

No question is so difficult to answer as that which the answer is obvious.

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Wisdom is not wisdom when it is derived from books alone.

If you want the moon, do not hide from the night. If you want a rose, do not hide from the thorns. If you want love, do not hide from yourself.

No man thoroughly understands a truth until he has contended against it.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker upon the planet. Then all things are at risk.

What is called genius is the abundance of life and health.

We are apt to love praise, but not deserve it. But if we would deserve it, we must love virtue more than that.

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.