Samuel Johnson

Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do.

He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.

Our tastes greatly alter. The lad does not care for the child’s rattle, and the old man does not care for the young man’s whore.

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

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

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

Commerce is of trivial import; love, faith, truth of character, the aspiration of man, these are sacred.

The years as they pass plunder us of one thing after another.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there’s been a liberating force that’s come from it.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake.

What right have I to grieve, who have not ceased to wonder?

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.

Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass.

In nature nothing can be given. All things are sold.

The method of nature: who could ever analyze it?

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.

Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival.

An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.

Tear thyself from delay.

Knowledge is the treasure, but judgment is the treasurer of the one who is wise.

A nap, my friend, is a brief period of sleep which overtakes superannuated persons when they endeavor to entertain unwelcome visitors or to listen to scientific lectures.