Samuel Johnson

Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal.

To expect that the intricacies of science will be pierced by a careless glance, or the eminences of fame ascended without labour, is to expect a peculiar privilege, a power denied to the rest of mankind; but to suppose that the maze is inscrutable to diligence, or the heights inaccessible to perseverance, is to submit tamely to the tyranny of fancy, and enchain the mind in voluntary shackles.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.

Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water-drinkers.

I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position.

It is impossible to love and to be wise.

Never marry but for love; but see that thou lovest what is lovely.

It’s them as take advantage that get advantage I this world.

I suffer whenever I see that common sight of a parent or senior imposing his opinion and way of thinking and being on a young soul to which they are totally unfit. Cannot we let people be themselves, and enjoy life in their own way? You are trying to make that man another you. One’s enough.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.

When the desire ain’t on me I don’t need help. When it is on me I don’t want any. See? Like the old fellah that never mended his roof. Said on a wet day he couldn’t do it and on a dry day it was as good as anybody’s.

Business is the salt of life.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.

Begin, be bold and venture to be wise.

The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne.

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly.