Samuel Johnson

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, Sir, I am your most humble servant. You are not his most humble servant. You may say, These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times. You don’t mind the times … You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don’t think foolishly.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

I hate this shallow Americanism which hopes to get rich by credit, to get knowledge by raps on midnight tables, to learn the economy of the mind by phrenology, or skill without study, or mastery without apprenticeship.

The life of man is the true romance, which when it is valiantly conduced, will yield the imagination a higher joy than any fiction.

Knowledge does not come to us in details, but in flashes of light from heaven.

Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.

A toddling little girl is a center of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Nature has always had more force than education.

If the fairest features of the landscape are to be named after men, let them be the noblest and worthiest men alone.

Beauty without expression is boring.

Don’t do or say things you would not like to see on the front page of The Washington Post.

It’s easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you’re a winner, when you’re number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you’re not a winner.

For who is pleased with himself.

However small the chance might be of striking lucky, the chance is there. The chance had to be there.

Broken, like a mosaic, I am pieced together. I am still a piece of art, though I may not be fully appreciated by all, the ones that see the beauty, are the ones who have the understanding; gained through experience, that to break, doesn’t mean to give up.