Samuel Johnson

Virtue is too often merely local.

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

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

The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a years.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

You teach your daughters the diameters of the planets and wonder when you are done that they do not delight in your company.

You’ve got a big, big problem if you get caught up in what people say. If you’re gonna live for what people say, you might as well lay down and forget it. Because it doesn’t work that way.

I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’.

Say what you have to say and first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending; sit down.

Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned.

Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.

Our chief want is someone who will inspire us to be what we know we could be.

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the more a man’s nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out.

Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.

There is only one good – knowledge; and only one evil – ignorance.

Of all the anti-social vested interests the worst is the vested interest in ill-health.

I have not a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming vices.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

Of what significance are the things you can forget.

I believe in the limitlessness of humans. We’re capable of incredible things. At times that realization is frightening.