Samuel Johnson

He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.

All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it.

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.

Revenge is an act of passion; vengeance of justice.

The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

A desire of knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all that he has to get knowledge.

Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labour; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by calling imagination to the help of reason.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.