Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

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

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again.

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.

People who use time wisely spend it on activities that advance their overall purpose in life.

Knowledge is power.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.

I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows.

Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.

The power of man has grown in every sphere, except over himself.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

For knowledge itself is power.

I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it.

Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.