Samuel Johnson

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any degree; only about as much as is used in the lowest kinds of poetry. Some penetration, accuracy, and coloring, will fit a man for the task, if he can give the application which is necessary.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.

Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself is nothing; when we have made it, the next wish is to change again. The world is not yet exhausted; let me see something tomorrow which I never saw before.

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Whatever you have spend less.

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.

If a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics.

I shall not wholly die, and a great part of me will escape the grave.

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.

A broken heart is a very pleasant complaint for a man in London if he has a comfortable income.

It is nobler to be good, and it is nobler to teach others to be good – and less trouble!

A sect or party is an incognito devised to save man from the vexation of thinking.

I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me.

He who is taught to live upon little owes more to his father’s wisdom than he who has a great deal left him does to his father’s care.

Never read any book that is not a year old.

Adam was but human-this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake, he wanted it only because it was forbidden. The mistake was in not forbidding the serpent; then he would have eaten the serpent.

We need much less than we think we need.

I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way (s)he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

If you live for people’s acceptance, you’ll die from their rejections.

With a burst of joy, my heels sprout wings, smile dancing. My heart sings like a bird caged, set free to soar, senses heightened like never before. Life. Is. Good.

The sea, washing the equator and the poles, offers its perilous aid, and the power and empire that follow it… Beware of me, it says, but if you can hold me, I am the key to all the lands.