Samuel Johnson

Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.

One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.

This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

Sir, a woman preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

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

I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.

Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.

When any fit of anxiety or gloominess or perversion of the mind lays hold upon you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaints but exert your whole care to hide it. By endeavoring to hide it, you will drive it away.

The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.

And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.