Samuel Johnson

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

There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

For who is pleased with himself.

The blaze of reputation cannot be blown out, but it often dies in the socket; a very few names may be considered as perpetual lamps that shine unconsumed.

The universal regard for money is the one hopeful fact in our civilization. Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity and beauty. Not the least of its virtues is that it destroys base people as certainly as it fortifies and dignifies noble people.

You know about a person who deeply interests you more than you can be told. A look, a gesture, an act, which to everybody else is insignificant tells you more about that one than words can.

The one who prosperity takes too much delight in will be the most shocked by reverses.

Life becomes easier when you learn to accept an apology you never got.

The happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.

That which we call sin in others, is experiment for us.

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it.

If it be an evil to judge rashly or untruly any single man, how much a greater sin it is to condemn a whole people.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

He is great who confers the most benefits.

The results of life are uncalculated and uncalculable. The years teach much which the days never know. The persons who compose our company, converse, and come and go, and design and execute many things, and somewhat comes of it all, but an unlooked for result. The individual is always mistaken. He designed many things, and drew in other persons as coadjutors, quarrelled with some or all, blundered much, and something is done; all are a little advanced, but the individual is always mistaken. It turns out somewhat new, and very unlike what he promised himself.

For too long I have silenced my heart, that now, when I give it the opportunity to speak, it no longer remembers its voice. Locked away, it forgot what it’s like to be free; to roam. Imprisoned within loneliness, I fear Stockholm syndrome has developed.

There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined.

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.