Samuel Johnson

Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.

Being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned.

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.

He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.

All colors will agree in the dark.

There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.

You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.

That is the whole secret of successful fighting. Get your enemy at a disadvantage; and never, on any account, fight him on equal terms.

The pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.

You. Not wanting me. Was the beginning of me wanting myself. Thank you.

You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren’t paying attention to.

Adam was but human-this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

This world is but a canvas to our imagination.

When the romance is gone, if it’s always you left searching for it, maybe it’s time to stop looking, and start searching for someone new, and start a new romantic journey.

You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

What you can’t pay back you pay forward.