Samuel Johnson

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.

Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

Life would be tolerable but for its amusements.

Enthusiasm is the leaping lightning, not to be measured by the horse-power of the understanding.

Wisdom has its root in goodness, not goodness its root in wisdom.

Respect the child. Be not too much his parent. Trespass not on his solitude.

Be confident, not certain

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude roots that can be pulled up.

In art, the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can imagine.

What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?

There is also this benefit in brag, that the speaker is unconsciously expressing his own ideal. Humor him by all means, draw it all out, and hold him to it.

Practice makes perfect, and nobody’s perfect, so why practice?

The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.

Justice though moving with tardy pace, has seldom failed to overtake the wicked in their flight.

Breed is stronger than pasture.

The quality of the imagination is to flow and not to freeze.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.