Samuel Johnson

A am a great friend of public amusements, they keep people from vice.

It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity; for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.

Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.

Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.

To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.

Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

Then I realized that secrecy is actually to the detriment of my own peace of mind and self, and that I could still sustain my belief in privacy and be authentic and transparent at the same time. It was a pretty revelatory moment, and there’s been a liberating force that’s come from it.

My mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it.

Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.

Courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.

He is rich who is content with the least; for contentment is the wealth of nature.

Every great movement must experience three stages ridicule, discussion, adoption.

What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?

Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.

Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.

All colors will agree in the dark.

There are a lot of people who lie and get away with it, and that’s just a fact.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

Events can neither be regarded as a series of adventures nor strung on the thread of a preconceived moral. They must obey their own laws.

He is great who is what he is from nature, and who never reminds us of others.