Samuel Johnson

As the Spanish proverb says, He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him. So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge.

I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney.

In a man’s letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.

Its proper use is to amuse the idle, and relax the studious, and dilute the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and will not use abstinence.

Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.

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

And you know, there’s less charm in life when you think about death–but it’s more peaceful.

Let us not forget: I didn’t just wake up First Lady… I mean, I went to law school, I practised law, I worked for the city, I ran a nonprofit (and) I was an executive at a hospital. I’ve been in the world. I’ve worked in every sector, and you don’t do that without coming up against some stuff. You know, having your feelings hurt, having people say things about you that aren’t true… Life hits you, so over the course of living, you learn how to protect yourself in it. You learn to take in what you need and get rid of the stuff that’s clearly not true.

My view is, first you get them to laugh, then you get them to listen. So I’m always game for a good joke, and I’m not so formal in this role. There’s very little that we can’t do that people wouldn’t appreciate.

I ask you to go back and read them over again, and this time answer “Self-acceptance was the foundation of the happiest time in your life and it was the engine that powered the train.

I like to surprise myself.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

Honesty is a very expensive gift, Don’t expect it from cheap people.

We have finished the job, what shall we do with the tools?

Grief never mended no broken bones.

Join the dance.

No one gossips about other people’s secret virtues.

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.

Progress is a new season and the rule of progress is everything in its season.

I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will.

There are lies, damned lies and statistics.