Samuel Johnson

One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Shame arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God.

Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world. With this sole view do men engage in politics, and their whole conduct proceeds upon it.

Whatever you have spend less.

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

To know fulfillment, nourish what is for the belly and not the eye.

Nothing is to be preferred before justice.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Clogged with yesterday’s excess, the body drags the mind down with it.

Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.

To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.

I never knew a writer yet who took the smallest pains with his style and was at the same time readable.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

Nations! What are nations? Tartars! and Huns! and Chinamen! Like insects they swarm. The historian strives in vain to make them memorable. It is for want of a man that there are so many men. It is individuals that populate the world.

Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius’s violins without Antonio.

Don’t call a woman a bitch. Call her an ass-hole. It still gets your point across and it’s not sexist.

The wise know that foolish legislation is a rope of sand, which perishes in the twisting.

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

Society never advances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. Society acquires new arts, and loses old instincts.

Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will.