Samuel Johnson

The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.

Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.

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.

Nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment.

Words are but the signs of ideas.

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

Most people think that aging is irreversible and we know that there are mechanisms even in the human machinery that allow for the reversal of aging, through correction of diet, through anti-oxidants, through removal of toxins from the body, through exercise, through yoga and breathing techniques, and through meditation.

Time is but the stream I go fishing in. I drink at it, but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. It’s thin current slides away, but eternity remains.

Kings are not born they are made by universal hallucination.

It is a lesson which all history teaches wise men, to put trust in ideas, and not in circumstances.

For every why he had a wherefore.

There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles… but there is one order of beauty which seems made to turn the heads not only of men, but of all intelligent mammals, even of women. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle and to engage in conscious mischief -a beauty with which you can never be angry, but that you feel ready to crush for inability to comprehend the state of mind into which it throws you.

Nowadays the host does not admit you to his hearth, but has got the mason to build one for yourself somewhere in his alley, and hospitality is the art of keeping you at the greatest distance.

Discretion of speech is more than eloquence, and to speak agreeably to him with whom we deal is more than to speak in good words, or in good order.

How can you dare teach a man to read until you’ve taught him everything else first?

His heart was as great as the world, but there was no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong.

Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.

In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood.

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.

Hell is paved with good intentions, not with bad ones. All men mean well.