new year's wisdom from dr. johnson

Happy New Year Everyone! If you're looking for New Year's wisdom, you've come to the right place. I wanted to post some of my own wisdom acrued over the past 25.5 years of my life, but then I was thinking that I don't have much intelligent to say that someone else hasn't already said before, and they were probably more wise, more well-spoken, more famous, and/or more attractive than me.

The following quotes are from Samuel Johnson (1709-84), who was "one of the towering literary figures of his age... a lexicographer, dramatist, novelist, critic, poet, editor, and conversationalist" (Schott's Original Miscellany, pg. 22). So be wise as you encounter the first day of work/class of 2005, and perhaps don't take yourself so seriously...

As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.

All intellectual improvement arises from leisure.

Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero... must drink brandy.

How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is ill.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he doesn't possess.

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.

He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.