Samuel Johnson

I am not able to instruct you. I can only tell that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study without experience; in the attainment of sciences which can, for the most part, be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestic tenderness.

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.

Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.

More knowledge may be gained of a man’s real character by a short conversation with one of his servants than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.

They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world.

How some of the writers I come across get through their books without dying of boredom is beyond me.

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare The truth thou hast, that all may share; Be bold, proclaim it everywhere: They only live who dare.

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.

For Africa to me… is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

No verse can give pleasure for long, nor last, that is written by drinkers of water.

People are lucky and unlucky not according to what they get absolutely, but according to the ratio between what they get and what they have been led to expect.

The German intellect wants the French sprightliness, the fine practical understanding of the English, and the American adventure; but it has a certain probity, which never rests in a superficial performance, but asks steadily, To what end? A German public asks for a controlling sincerity.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

If a man constantly aspires is he not elevated?

Have wholesome, but not costly Food, and be rather cleanly than dainty in ordering it.