Samuel Johnson

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

He that outlives a wife whom he has long loved, sees himself disjoined from the only mind that has the same hopes, and fears, and interest; from the only companion with whom he has shared much good and evil; and with whom he could set his mind at liberty, to retrace the past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless.

If I had no duties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman.

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

Poverty is often concealed in splendor, and often in extravagance. It is the task of many people to conceal their neediness from others. Consequently they support themselves by temporary means, and everyday is lost in contriving for tomorrow.

He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.

It is generally a feminine eye that first detects the moral deficiencies hidden under the dear deceit of beauty.

The late M. Venizelos observed that in all her wars Englandhe should have said Britain, of coursealways wins one battlethe last.

I believe that the most important single thing, beyond discipline and creativity is daring to dare.

Many of the phenomena of Winter are suggestive of an inexpressible tenderness and fragile delicacy. We are accustomed to hear this king described as a rude and boisterous tyrant; but with the gentleness of a lover he adorns the tresses of Summer.

Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

The fickleness of the women I love is only equaled by the infernal constancy of the women who love me.

Earth laughs in flowers.

I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.

Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.

The virtue in most request is conformity.

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

Crime and punishment grow out of one stem. Punishment is a fruit that, unsuspected, ripens with the flower of the pleasure that concealed it.

If you want to get what you want give up being right.

The greatest part of a writer’s time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Looking? Found someone you have, eh?