Samuel Johnson

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

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

Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy.

So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He’ll beat you all at piety.

Vision without execution is just hallucination.

Faith, n.: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

We tell lies when we are afraid, . . . afraid of what we don’t know, afraid of what others will think, afraid of what will be found out about us. But every time we tell a lie, the thing that we fear grows stronger.

The best stories don’t come from ‘good vs. bad’ but ‘good vs. good.’

Scriptures, n.: The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.

You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty.

But to do for the world more than the world does for you, that is Success.

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.

Let us not, however, upon this account rashly conclude that she is capable of supporting any burden, nor even be too confident that she could support, without great distress, a burden a little greater than what has already been laid upon her.

I define nothing. Not beauty, not patriotism. I take each thing as it is, without prior rules about what it should be.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.

I smoke in moderation, only one cigar at a time.