Samuel Johnson

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition. He that sinks under the fatigue of getting wealth, lulls his age with the milder business of saving it.

Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Branching streams cannot compare to the source.

Light is the first of painters. There is no object so foul that intense light will not make it beautiful.

The betrothed and accepted lover has lost the wildest charms of his maiden by her acceptance. She was heaven while he pursued her, but she cannot be heaven if she stoops to one such as he!

A blind man knows he cannot see, and is glad to be led, though it be by a dog; but he that is blind in his understanding, which is the worst blindness of all, believes he sees as the best, and scorns a guide.

Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.

The aim of spiritual life is to awaken a joyful freedom, a benevolent and compassionate heart in spite of everything.

The future is purchased by the present.

A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.

Wake up, lift your head, open your eyes, and dream. Gaze softly into your heart’s whispers. Notice the pull of your belly and that which makes you come alive. Let your soul speak, beckoning you to embark on that one voyage you can no longer let lie.

Our own life has to be our message.

I cannot forgive a scholar his homeless despondency.

Men are what their mothers made them.

Stress is caused by being here but wanting to be there.

He who praises everybody, praises nobody.