Samuel Johnson

Piety practiced in solitude, like the flower that blooms in the desert, may give its fragrance to the winds of heaven, and delight those unbodied spirits that survey the works of God and the actions of men; but it bestows no assistance upon earthly beings, and however free from taints of impurity, yet wants the sacred splendor of beneficence.

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

Surely life, if it be not long, is tedious, since we are forced to call in the assistance of so many trifles to rid us of our time, of that time which never can return.

The Supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things – the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they’re yours.

The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.

With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity, and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness, and ugliness.

The dead should be judged like criminals, impartially, but they should be allowed the benefit of the doubt.

Sympathetic people often don’t communicate well, they back reflected images which hide their own depths.

Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.

Whom do I call educated? First, those who manage well the circumstances they encounter day by day. Next, those who are decent and honorable in their intercourse with all men, bearing easily and good naturedly what is offensive in others and being as agreeable and reasonable to their associates as is humanly possible to be… those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not ultimately overcome by their misfortunes… those who are not spoiled by their successes, who do not desert their true selves but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober — minded men.

To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.

Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

If there be three distinct and separate Persons, then three distinct and separate Substances. . . . And since the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God . . . then unless the Father, Son and Spirit are three distinct Nothings, they must be three distinct Substances, and consequently three distinct Gods.

The power which resides in man is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.