Samuel Johnson

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

You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others… This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.

It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehend at once all the consequences of a position, or perceive the difficulties by which cooler and more experienced reasoners are restrained from confidence, they form their conclusions with great precipitance. Seeing nothing that can darken or embarrass the question, they expect to find their own opinion universally prevalent, and are inclined to impute uncertainty and hesitation to want of honesty, rather than of knowledge.

Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.

I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.

Life is a festival only to the wise.

The way of fortune is like the milkyway in the sky; which is a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but giving light together: so it is a number of little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties and customs, that make men fortunate.

Labor, if it were not necessary for existence, would be indispensable for the happiness of man.

The soul’s emphasis is always right.

What is once well done is done forever.

To act from pure benevolence is not possible for finite human beings, Human benevolence is mingled with vanity, interest, or some other motive.

The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship.

I have never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude.

I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won’t.

I lose my respect for the man who can make the mystery of sex the subject of a coarse jest, yet when you speak earnestly and seriously on the subject, is silent.

No orator can top the one who can give good nicknames.

I can teach anybody how to get what they want out of life. The problem is that I can’t find anybody who can tell me what they want.

Sympathy is a supporting atmosphere, and in it we unfold easily and well.

Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.