Samuel Johnson

Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.

Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man; but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.

As a rule, adversity reveals genius and prosperity hides it.

Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity.

We boast our emancipation from many superstitions; but if we have broken any idols, it is through a transfer of idolatry.

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

Youth gets together with their materials to build a bridge to the moon or maybe a palace on earth; then in middle age they decide to build a woodshed with them instead.

Always do what you are afraid to do.

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.

I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there is no refuge.

Here’s the thing: the world is not going to issue you an engraved invitation to this life.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.

Every wall is a door.