Samuel Johnson

Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.

Round numbers are always false.

Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.

When men come to like a sea-life, they are not fit to live on land.

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.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.

A good memory and a tongue tied in the middle is a combination which gives immortality to conversation.

The glory of friendship is not in the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is in the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.

In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.

A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us. The friend asks no return but that his friend will religiously accept and wear and not disgrace his apotheosis of him. They cherish each other’s hopes. They are kind to each other’s dreams.

To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

Love can often be misguided and do as much harm as good, but respect can do only good. It assumes that the other person’s stature is as large as one’s own, his rights as reasonable, his needs as important.

Faith keeps many doubts in her pay. If I could not doubt, I should not believe.

You don’t get respect if you don’t deserve it

It is a fine thing to be honest, but it is also very important to be right.

Words are alive; cut them and they bleed.

Is the acorn better than the oak which is its fullness and completion?

I hate women because they always know where things are.

And deep in my heart. The answer, it was in me. And I made up my mind. To define my own destiny.

For many years I was a self-appointed inspector of snowstorms and rainstorms and did my duty faithfully, though I never received payment for it.

The eloquent man is he who is no eloquent speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief.