Samuel Johnson

Words are but the signs of ideas.

Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Depend upon it that if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him.

To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.

A continual feast of commendation is only to be obtained by merit or by wealth: many are therefore obliged to content themselves with single morsels, and recompense the infrequency of their enjoyment by excess and riot, whenever fortune sets the banquet before them.

I have been breaking silence these twenty-three years and have hardly made a rent in it.

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

Only trust theyself, and another shall noet betray thee

We are as much informed of a writer’s genius by what he selects as by what he originates.

Having power is not nearly as important as what you choose to do with it.

He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.

So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it but I couldnt find honest employment.

Through our own recovered innocence we discern the innocence of our neighbors.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

The ship of heaven guides itself and will not accept a wooden rudder.

I didn’t find my friends; the good Lord gave them to me.

The public do not know enough to be experts, but know enough to decide between them.

If it is not beautiful for someone, it does not exist.

To hold a pen is to be at war.