Samuel Johnson

Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

To see helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and pouring out her cries in testimony of dependence, without any powers to alarm jealousy, or any guilt to alienate affection, must surely awaken tenderness in every human mind; and tenderness once excited will be hourly increased by the natural contagion of felicity, by the repercussion of communicated pleasure, by the consciousness of dignity of benefaction.

There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits not because recompense is a pleasure for them, but because obligation is a pain.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.

Think with your whole body.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

You have set up in New York Harbor a monstrous idol which you call Liberty. The only thing that remains to complete that monument is to put on its pedestal the inscription written by Dante on the gate of hell: All hope abandon ye who enter here.

The future is purchased by the present.

That kind of life is most happy which affords us most opportunities of gaining our own esteem.

Your mind will enchain you. Your heart will set you free.

The human race was always interesting and we know by its past that it will always continue so, monotonously.

No just cause is futile, even if it’s lost, if it helps make the future better than the past.

Listening to both sides does not necessarily bring about a correct judgment.

He that hath wife and children hath given hostages to fortune; for they are impediments to great enterprises, either of virtue or mischief.

Tread softly, Breathe peacefully, Laugh hysterically.

For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends. I have savored to the full all the small, daily joys. The bright sunshine on the breakfast table; the smell of the air at dusk; the sound of the clock ticking; the light rains that start gently after midnight; the hour when the family come home; Sunday-evening tea before the fire! I have never missed one moment of beauty, not even taken it for granted. Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I wish I had failed as little in other ways.

I’ve learned that from my husband, that sort of, you know, ability to not get too high or too low with changes and bumps in the road.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.