Samuel Johnson

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.

Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.

Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.

There are many victories worse than a defeat.

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

It’s powerful to have strong men but what does that strength mean?

Our thinking and our behaviour are always in anticipation of a response. It is therefore fear-based.

Why, except as a means of livelihood, a man should desire to act on the stage when he has the whole world to act in, is not clear to me.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

Riches are for spending.

The mind can go in a thousand directions, but on this beautiful path, I walk in peace.

It’s not the adversity, but how you face it.

For disappointments, that come not by our own folly, they are the trials or corrections of Heaven: and it is our own fault, if they prove not our advantage.

Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in disguise.

The only reward of virtue is virtue the only way to have a friend is to be one.

The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.

Old age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

As long as I have a want, I have a reason for living. Satisfaction is death.