Samuel Johnson

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes, than a public library.

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

I have thought of a pulley to raise me gradually; but that would give me pain, as it would counteract my natural inclination. I would have something that can dissipate the inertia and give elasticity to the muscles. We can heat the body, we can cool it; we can give it tension or relaxation; and surely it is possible to bring it into a state in which rising from bed will not be a pain.

Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

Why, Sir, most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.

Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.

Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope.

Natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.

Americans adore me and will go on adoring me until I say something nice about them.

An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of the case. God has written all the books.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

To regret deeply is to live afresh.

Give me insight into today and you may have the antique and future worlds.

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Hitch your wagon to a star. Let us not fag in paltry works which serve our pot and bag alone.

Every time I think I have reached the peak, I look up and see I still have a ways to go. But I look back and see just how far I have come.

The great secret, Eliza, is not having bad manners or good manners or any other particular sort of manners, but having the same manner for all human souls: in short, behaving as if you were in Heaven, where there are no third-class carriages, and one soul is as good as another.

There is no way to success in art but to take off your coat, grind paint, and work like a digger on the railroad, all day and every day.