Samuel Johnson

I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.

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

It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.

The advice that is wanted is commonly not welcome and that which is not wanted, evidently an effrontery.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.

Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?

Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.

By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show.

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

The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.

A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.

When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.

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.

Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.

No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.