“All thought is a feat of association; having what's in front of you bring up something in your mind that you almost didn't know you knew”
Source: Collected Poems, Prose & Plays
“I should as soon think of contradicting a bishop”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Johnson (Illustrated)
“There is no moral precept that does not have something inconvenient about it.”
“To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others”
Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
“Thought is the organizing factor in man, intersected between the causal primary instincts and the resulting actions.”
Source: Out of My Later Years: The Scientist, Philosopher and Man Portrayed Through His Own Words
“Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own”
Source: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
“Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.”
“The first evil choice or act is linked to the second; and each one to the one that follows, both by the tendency of our evil nature and by the power of habit, which holds us as by a destiny”
Source: The New Dictionary of Thoughts
“For where the instrument of intelligence is added to brute power and evil will, mankind is powerless in its own defense.”
Source: The inferno
“The Devil was sick - the Devil a monk would be, The Devil was well the devil a monk was he”
Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel: Easyread Comfort Edition