Samuel Johnson

Questioning is not the mode of conversation among gentlemen.

Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.

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.

Ah! Sir, a boy’s being flogged is not so severe as a man’s having the hiss of the world against him.

Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.

No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.

There are only two ways of telling the complete truth–anonymously and posthumously.

The honest truth is that every day was new, every day was a challenge, every day was starting from a fresh place, and as time went on, over the course of about two years, things became better and better. But I don’t think that there was for me anything like, ‘Ah, this is taking too long’, because ‘long’ didn’t exist. So I see it as a blessing. I have to laugh. I mean there’s no other way to look at it.

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie.

Any fool can tell the truth, but it requires a man of some sense to know how to lie well.

The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.

There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.

Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth

There is no such source of error as the pursuit of truth.

Truth is a good dog; but always beware of barking too close to the heels of an error, lest you get your brains kicked out.

The truth knocks on the door and you say, Go away, I’m looking for the truth, and so it goes away. Puzzling.

Truth is so hard to tell, it sometimes needs fiction to make it plausible.

Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are economical in its use.

History is strewn thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but a lie, well told, is immortal.

The truth is that there is nothing noble in being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being superior to your former self.

Let them look up in the sky then…! if they must be so blind, that cannot see the truth in broad daylight, but must have the whole world in darkness to see the conceit of the stars…