Samuel Johnson

Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.

I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.

Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.

I have a great deal of company in the house, especially in the morning when nobody calls.

When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

It requires a great deal of boldness and a great deal of caution to make a great fortune, and when you have it, it requires ten times as much skill to keep it.

Human life is as evanescent as the morning dew or a flash of lightning.

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but we must take that risk because a little is as much as our biggest heads can hold.

Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it!

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

Men over forty are no judges of a book written in a new spirit.

Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy; and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.

Vulgarity in a king flatters the majority of the nation.

The fewer our wants the more we resemble the Gods.

Nakedness is uncomely, as well in mind as body, and it addeth no small reverence to men’s manners and actions if they be not altogether open. Therefore set it down: That a habit of secrecy is both politic and moral.