Samuel Johnson

What ever the motive for the insult, it is always best to overlook it; for folly doesn’t deserve resentment, and malice is punished by neglect.

So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.

Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.

Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.

That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

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

Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.

Prosperity is the surest breeder of insolence I know.

No just cause is futile, even if it’s lost, if it helps make the future better than the past.

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

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!

If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mousetrap, than his neighbor, though he build his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most. On Other Peoples Expectations: The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.

Pity the man who has a character to support – it is worse than a large family – he is silent poor indeed.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

Humanity has unquestionably one really effective weapon

The rich man is always sold to the institution which makes him rich. Absolutely speaking, the more money, the less virtue.

Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.

Painting was called silent poetry and poetry speaking painting.

Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.