Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

If pleasure was not followed by pain, who would forbear it?

It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.

A fly may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.

The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking.

All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: “I’m with you kid. Let’s go.”

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.

If there be three distinct and separate Persons, then three distinct and separate Substances. . . . And since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God . . . then unless the Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.

A banker is a fellow who lends his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

The subtlety of nature is greater many times over than the subtlety of the senses and understanding.

Union may be strength, but it is mere blind brute strength unless wisely directed.

Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance only.

Whatever the human law may be, neither an individual nor a nation can commit the least act of injustice against the obscurest individual without having to pay the penalty for it.

Character building begins in our infancy and continues until death.

Animals are my friends… and I don’t eat my friends.

I simply want to live; to cause no evil to anyone but myself.

Tis a rule of manners to avoid exaggeration.

Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive.

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

Mysteries are due to secrecy.