Samuel Johnson

He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.

The traveler that resolutely follows a rough and winding path will sooner reach the end of his journey than he that is always changing his direction, and wastes the hour of daylight in looking for smoother ground and shorter passages.

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny rather than part with it for a cake, at least is not the slave of gross appetite; and shows besides a preference always to be esteemed, of the future to the present moment.

No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.

Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with gross compliments, for the appetite must be satisfied before it is disgusted.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

If you are going through hell, keep going.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

I want to be free; to escape. I use my pen as oars; the paper as my boat. I fill these pages to keep me afloat. I ride the waves of turmoil, so I can paddle away to calmer seas.

When you ascend the hill of prosperity, may you not meet a friend.

A crime persevered in a thousand centuries ceases to be a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all other forms of law.

The best augury of a man’s success in his profession is that he thinks it the finest in the world.

Vulgarity in a king flatters the majority of the nation.

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found; and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

If any man cannot feel the power of God when he looks upon the stars, then I doubt whether he is capable of any feeling at all. [Ut haec ipsa qui non sentiat deorum vim habere is nihil omnino sensurus esse videatur.]

The youth of an art is, like the youth of anything else, its most interesting period. When it has come to the knowledge of good and evil it is stronger, but we care less about it.

Above all, we must avoid the pitfalls of tribalism. If we are divided among ourselves on tribal lines, we open our doors to foreign intervention and its potentially harmful consequences.

Every wall is a door.

Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.