Samuel Johnson

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

Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.

The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.

There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.

Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

I look up at the universe and ask, ‘What are you trying to teach me here?’ I know I won’t hear a reply, but asking the question, makes me begin looking for the answer.

If you believe in fate, believe in it, at least, for your good.

It is not known precisely where angels dwell whether in the air, the void, or the planets. It has not been God’s pleasure that we should be informed of their abode.

The wonder is always new that any sane man can be a sailor.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads.

As to conforming outwardly, and living your own life inwardly, I have not a very high opinion of that course.

Nothing is ever done in this world until men are prepared to kill one another if it is not done.

Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

He will be loved when dead, who was envied when he was living.

For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

Silence is the most perfect expression of scorn.

I respect not his labors, his farm where everything has its price, who would carry the landscape, who would carry his God, to market, if he could get anything for him; who goes to market for his god as it is; on whose farm nothing grows free, whose fields bear no crops, whose meadows no flowers, whose trees no fruits, but dollars.

Self-preservation is the first law of nature.