Samuel Johnson

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

A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.

If he really thinks there is no distinction between vice and virtue, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.

To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the free gift of mankind, which must be deserved before it will be granted, and is at last unwillingly bestowed.

A man’s true delight is to do the things he was made for.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Gold will be slave or master.

Appearances matter – and remember to smile.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

I recall a most ingenious piece in a Wisconsin quarterly some years ago in which ‘The Recognitions’ ’ debt to ‘Ulysses’ was established in such minute detail I was doubtful of my own firm recollection of never having read ‘Ulysses.

The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly.

Arguments are like fire-arms which a man may keep at home but should not carry about with him.

Home life is no more natural to us than a cage is natural to a cockatoo.

Be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.

The ear is the avenue to the heart.

The disciplined are free.

We are always getting ready to live but never living.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large mattertis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.