Samuel Johnson

Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience. You will find it a calamity.

Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.

A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.

A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation — a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.

The wise man applauds he who he thinks most virtuous; the rest of the world applauds the wealthy.

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

The fatal trait of the times is the divorce between religion and morality.

In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

Your mind makes a cruel master, but a generous servant.

Let your family, staff, and friends know that you’re still the same person, despite all the publicity and notoriety that accompanies your position.

Paradise was made for tender hearts; hell, for loveless hearts.

The Chinese said of themselves several thousand years ago: China is a sea that salts all the waters that flow into it. Theres another Chinese saying about their country which is much more modernit dates only from the fourth century. This is the saying: The tail of China is large and will not be wagged. I like that one. The British democracy approves the principles of movable party heads and unwaggable national tails. It is due to the working of these important forces that I have the honour to be addressing you at this moment.

Jealousy is never satisfied with anything short of an omniscience that would detect the subtlest fold of the heart.

A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

Nothing destroys authority more than the unequal and untimely interchange of power stretched too far and relaxed too much.

I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

Esther liked books out where everyone could see them, a sort of graphic index to the intricate labyrinth of her mind arrayed to impress the most casual guest, a system of immediate introduction which she had found to obtain in a number of grimy intellectual households in Greenwich Village.

Being is the great explainer.

What could we accomplish if we knew we could not fail?

Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life.