"He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it."

“Johnson is dead. Let us go to the next best — there is nobody; no man can be said to put you in mind of Johnson.”

“I jumped up on the benches, roared out, "Damn you, you rascals!", hissed and was in the greatest rage. I hated the English; I wished from my soul that the Union was broke and that we might give them another battle of Bannockburn.”

“The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse.”

“As all who come into the country must obey the King, so all who come into an university must be of the Church.”

“You are a philosopher, Dr. Johnson. I have tried too in my time to be a philosopher; but, I don't know how, cheerfulness was always breaking in.”

“I observed he poured a large quantity of it into a glass, and swallowed it greedily. Everything about his character and manners was forcible and violent; there never was any moderation; many a day did he fast, many a year did he refrain from wine; but when he did eat, it was voraciously; when he did drink wine, it was copiously. He could practise abstinence, but not temperance.”