Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor. – Samuel Johnson
The happiest part of a mans life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning. – Samuel Johnson
Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim; and when you are calculating, calculate. – Samuel Johnson
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. – Samuel Johnson
We can easily become as much slaves to precaution as we can to fear. Although we can never rivet our fortune so tight as to make it impregnible, we may by our excessive prudence squeeze out of the life that we are guarding so anxiously all the adventurous quality that makes it worth living. – Randolph Silliman Bourne