Samuel Johnson

Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.

There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.

The drama’s laws, the drama’s patrons give, for we that live to please, must please to live.

Your manuscript is both good and original, but the part that is good is not original and the part that is original is not good.

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.

When our relatives are at home, we have to think of all their good points or it would be impossible to endure them. But when they are away, we console ourselves for their absence by dwelling on their vices.

Is not every man sometimes a radical in politics? Men are conservatives when they are least vigorous, or when they are most luxurious. They are conservatives after dinner, or before taking their rest; when they are sick, or aged. In the morning, or when their intellect or their conscience has been aroused; when they hear music, or when they read poetry, they are radicals.

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size But when I start to tell them, They think I’m telling lies. I say, It’s in the reach of my arms The span of my hips, The stride of my step, The curl of my lips. I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.

A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razor strap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.

The arts and inventions of each period are only its costume, and do not invigorate men.

Well, dinner would have been splendid!

The joy in life is to be used for a purpose. I want to be used up when I die.

That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.

One can resist the invasion of an army, but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.

I have never felt that anything really mattered but knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.

Pictures must not be too picturesque.

Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

Wisdom is better than silver and gold. I was hopeless, now I’m on hope road.

Books are delightful society. If you go into a room and find it full of books – even without taking them from the shelves they seem to speak to you, to bid you welcome.