Samuel Johnson

I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it.

Where secrecy or mystery begins, vice or roguery is not far off.

Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.

Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue.

A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.

Men are seldom more commonplace than on supreme occasions.

The only wealth is life.

There is no chance, and no anarchy, in the universe. All is system and gradation. Every god is there sitting in his sphere.

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.

Whether he knew it or not, the life he lived was his penance. Punishing himself, for what he believes are his sins. Consciously or subconsciously, he creates the world he lives in. Never believing that he is deserving happiness, deserving joy. His self-destructive nature, in his eyes, and his eyes only, is justified. Everyone is deserving absolution, but he needs to understand, that he is the only one able to forgive himself.

Our minds want clothes as much as our bodies.

Blame is safer than praise.

To be a man’s own fool is bad enough, but the vain man is everybody’s.

I don’t do quagmires.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country.

Nothing is more costly, nothing is more sterile, than vengeance.

I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.

Achievement brings its own anticlimax.