Samuel Johnson

He may justly be numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may early be impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to occur habitually to the mind.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.

What is easy is seldom excellent.

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

While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

When you know better you do better.

The opportunity for doing mischief is found a hundred times a day, and of doing good once in a year.

If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.

The endearing elegance of female friendship.

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.

In all evils which admits a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes the time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause.

He has not lived badly whose birth and death has been unnoticed by the world.

The Ancient Mariner would not have taken so well if it had been called The Old Sailor.

George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.

Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.

I have to live for others and not for myself: that’s middle-class morality.

It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Ice-cream is exquisite – what a pity it isn’t illegal.