Samuel Johnson

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.

I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Don’t think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drive into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.

Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

The pains you feel are messengers. Listen to them.

A verse from the Veda says, ‘What you see, you become.’ In other words, just the experience of perceiving the world makes you what you are. This is a quite literal statement.

I could never be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

All endeavor calls for the ability to tramp the last mile, shape the last plan, endure the last hours toil. The fight to the finish spirit is the one… characteristic we must posses if we are to face the future as finishers.

You can free yourself from aging by reinterpreting your body and by grasping the link between belief and biology.

Let us, if we must have great actions, make our own so. All action is of infinite elasticity, and the least admits of being inflated with celestial air, until it eclipses the sun and moon.

Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact.

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

He has spent his life best who has enjoyed it most. God will take care that we do not enjoy it any more than is good for us.

Of all debts men are least willing to pay the taxes. What a satire is this on government! Everywhere they think they get their moneys worth, except for these.

Our whole life is startlingly moral. There is never an instant’s truce between virtue and vice.

Be confident, not certain

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.