Samuel Johnson

Parents and children seldom act in concert: each child endeavors to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet less temptation, betray each other to their children.

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.

Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

Sir, a man who cannot get to heaven in a green coat, will not find his way thither the sooner in a gray one.

How could a man be satisfied with a decision between such alternatives and under such circumstances? No more than he can be satisfied with his hat, which he’s chosen from among such shapes as the resources of the age offer him, wearing it at best with a resignation which is chiefly supported by comparison.

I find that the Americans have no passions, they have appetites.

Ready are you? What know you of ready?

It is said that the present is pregnant with the future.

We shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us.

Energy doesn’t lie so trust those vibes you’re getting.

Every person is a God in embryo. Its only desire is to be born.

There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.

I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.

You are now fixed at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making and live a free, and if you will, a sober and industrious life. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person. God has furnished me with a better resolution and has given me his grace to keep it.

Birth and death are so closely related that one could not destroy either without destroying the other at the same time. It is extinction that makes creation possible.

The only reward of virtue is virtue the only way to have a friend is to be one.

All styles are good except the tiresome kind.

Danger – if you meet it promptly and without flinching – you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!