Samuel Johnson

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.

There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner?

Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favor. She imagines herself not only certain of accomplishing every adventure, but of obtaining those rewards which the accomplishment may deserve. She is not easily persuaded to believe that the force of merit can be resisted by obstinacy and avarice, or its luster darkened by envy and malignity.

Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.

Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts.

Be better. Be better at everything. Be better fathers… Men can be better husbands, which is – be a part of your family’s life. Do the dishes. Don’t babysit your children. You don’t babysit your own children. Be engaged. Don’t just think going to work and coming home makes you a man. Being a father, being engaged, all that stuff is important. Be a better employer. When you are sitting at a seat of power at a table of any kind and you look around you just see you, it’s just you and a bunch of men around a table, on a golf course, making deals, and you allow that to happen, and you’re okay with that – be better.

Possession isn’t nine-tenths of the law. It’s nine-tenths of the problem.

Youth is like spring, an over-praised season more remarkable for biting winds than genial breezes. Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books nobody reads.

It has been my philosophy of life that difficulties vanish when faced boldly.

To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.

Go oft to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.

To believe in God is impossible not to believe in Him is absurd.

To be idle and to be poor have always been reproaches, and therefore every man endeavors with his utmost care to hide his poverty from others, and his idleness from himself.

In every man there is something wherein I may learn of him, and in that I am his pupil.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

When Nature has work to be done, she creates a genius to do it.

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

The universal regard for money is the one hopeful fact in our civilization. Money is the most important thing in the world. It represents health, strength, honor, generosity and beauty. Not the least of its virtues is that it destroys base people as certainly as it fortifies and dignifies noble people.