Samuel Johnson

“No man was ever great by imitation.”

“All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.”

“He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”

“Small debts are like small shot they are rattling on every side, and can scarcely be escaped without a wound: great debts are like cannon of loud noise, but little danger.”

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.”

“Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife he is always proud of himself as the source of it.”

“There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.”

“There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.”

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.”

“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”

“The use of travelling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.”

“Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.”

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”

“Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.”

“No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.”

“You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury, than by giving it for by spending it in luxury, you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.”

“There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.”

“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”

“Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.”

“Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.”

“Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

“You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.”

“Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.”

“Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.”