Samuel Johnson

A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He’ll beat you all at piety.

I will be conquered; I will not capitulate.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make faces and produce laughter, like dancing dogs.

Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.

Friendship, ‘the wine of life,’ said Boswell, should, like a well-stocked cellar, be thus continually renewed. And Dr. Johnson added to this A man, Sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair.

Only when you are kinder to yourself, you can be kinder to the world.

When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.

If it were true that men could achieve their good by means of turning some men into sacrificial animals, and … if I were asked to serve the interests of society apart from, above and against my own I would refuse….I would fight in the full confidence of the justice of my battle and of a living being’s right to exist.

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

A new breeze is blowing, and a world refreshed by freedom seems reborn; for in man’s heart, if not in fact, the day of the dictator is over. The totalitarian era is passing, its old ideas blown away like leaves from an ancient, lifeless tree.

Life’s three best teachers: heartbreak, empty pocket, failures.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

Man minus the Machine is a slave; Man plus the Machine is a freeman.

Be not afraid of going slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

Anything is better than lies and deceit!

Die, but do not retreat.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words… the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt.

Feelings are often born from the matrix of conditions beyond your control. Let them just pass through, like a cloud in the sky.