Samuel Johnson

A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.

It is not true that people are naturally equal for no two people can be together for even a half an hour without one acquiring an evident superiority over the other.

A man who is good enough to go to heaven is not good enough to be a clergyman.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned… a man in a jail has more room, better food, and commonly better company.

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.

This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.

Remember who you are.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

The man is either mad, or he is making verses.

A man cannot speak but he judges himself. With his will or against his will he draws his portrait to the eye of his companions by every word. Every opinion reacts on him who utters it. It is a threadball thrown at a mark, but the other end remains on the thrower.

Mementos of this world, in which the things worth being were so easily exchanged for the things worth having.

The quality of strength lined with tenderness is an unbeatable combination, as are intelligence and necessity when unblunted by formal education.

Raphael paints wisdom; Handel sings it, Phidias carves it, Shakespeare writes it, Wren builds it, Columbus sails it, Luther preaches it, Washington arms it, Watt mechanizes it.

We are often deterred from crime by the disgrace of others.

We are symbols, and inhabit symbols.

I am easily satisfied with the very best.

It were endless to dispute upon everything that is disputable.

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.

Private men, in fine, are so much their own, that, paying common dues, they are sovereigns of all the rest. Yet the public must and will be served; and they that do it well, deserve public marks of honour and respect. To do so, men must have public minds, as well as salaries; or they will serve private ends at the public cost. Government can never be well administered, but where those intrusted make conscience of well discharging their places.