"As the Spanish proverb says, "He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him." So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

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

"Pleasure of itself is not a vice."

"I am willing to love all mankind, except an American."

"A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone."

"Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get."

"Every man thinks meanly of himself for not having been a soldier, or not having been at sea."

"It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age."

"All argument is against it; but all belief is for it."

"It must be agreed that in most ages many countries have had part of their inhabitants in a state of slavery; yet it may be doubted whether slavery can ever be supposed the natural condition of man. It is impossible not to conceive that men in their original state were equal; and very difficult to imagine how one would be subjected to another but by violent compulsion. An individual may, indeed, forfeit his liberty by a crime; but he cannot by that crime forfeit the liberty of his children."

"Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies."

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

"Depend upon it, Sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

"I [Boswell] was somewhat disappointed in finding that the edition of The English Poets, for which he was to write Prefaces and Lives, was not an undertaking directed by him: but that he was to furnish a Preface and Life to any poet the booksellers pleased. I asked him if he would do this to any dunce's works, if they should ask him. JOHNSON: "Yes, Sir, and say he was a dunce.""

"Life admits not of delays; when pleasure can be had, it is fit to catch it. Every hour takes away part of the things that please us, and perhaps part of our disposition to be pleased."

"Sir, you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both."

"Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment."

"While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it."

"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money."

"A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him. A man when he gets into a higher sphere, into other habits of life, cannot keep up all his former connections. Then, Sir, those who knew him formerly upon a level with themselves, may think that they ought still to be treated as on a level, which cannot be; and an acquaintance in a former situation may bring out things which it would be very disagreeable to have mentioned before higher company, though, perhaps, everybody knows of them."

"This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts."

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

"There is now less flogging in our great schools than formerly, but then less is learned there; so that what the boys get at one end they lose at the other."

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

"Hell is paved with good intentions."

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

"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 one book."

"Attack is the reaction; I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds."

"Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out."

"A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden."

"A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization."

"A gentleman who had been very unhappy in marriage, married immediately after his wife died: Johnson said, it was the triumph of hope over experience."

"Johnson observed, that "he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney.""

"That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one."

"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."

"Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion."

"So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other."

"Why, Sir, it is difficult to settle the proportion of iniquity between them."

"I refute it thus."

"I [Boswell] happened to say, it would be terrible if he should not find a speedy opportunity of returning to London, and be confined in so dull a place. JOHNSON: "Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters. It would not be terrible, though I were to be detained some time here.""