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Samuel Johnson -
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Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
Samuel Johnson
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Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head that I do not love you; you may settle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety.
Samuel Johnson
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Every man is of importance to himself, and, therefore, in his own opinion, to others; and, supposing the world already acquainted with his pleasures and his pains, is perhaps the first to publish injuries or misfortunes which had never been known unless related by himself, and at which those that hear them will only laugh, for no man sympathises with the sorrows of vanity.
Samuel Johnson
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A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see.
Samuel Johnson
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The prospect of penury in age is so gloomy and terrifying that every man who looks before him must resolve to avoid it; and it must be avoided generally by the science of sparing.
Samuel Johnson
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Timidity is a disease of the mind, obstinate and fatal; for a man once persuaded that any impediment is insuperable has given it, with respect to himself, that strength and weight which it had not before.
Samuel Johnson
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A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.
Samuel Johnson
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No man reads a book of science from pure inclination. The books that we do read with pleasure are light compositions, which contain a quick succession of events.
Samuel Johnson
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Though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one man often make many miserable.
Samuel Johnson
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A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
Samuel Johnson
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What can a sick man say, but that he is sick?
Samuel Johnson
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The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.
Samuel Johnson
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People seldom read a book which is given to them; and few are given. The way to spread a work is to sell it at a low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence without an intention to read it.
Samuel Johnson
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In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
Samuel Johnson
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Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
Samuel Johnson
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Wit will never make a man rich, but there are places where riches will always make a wit.
Samuel Johnson
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There is nothing against which an old man should be so much upon his guard as putting himself to nurse.
Samuel Johnson
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The labor of rising from the ground will be great,... but as we mount higher, the earth's attraction, and the body's gravity, will be gradually diminished till we arrive at a region where the man will float in the air without any tendency to fall.
Samuel Johnson
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Such is the constitution of man that labour may be styled its own reward; nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.
Samuel Johnson
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When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
Samuel Johnson
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This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.
Samuel Johnson
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I deny the lawfulness of telling a lie to a sick man for fear of alarming him; you have no business with consequences, you are to tell the truth.
Samuel Johnson
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There may be other reasons for a man's not speaking in publick than want of resolution: he may have nothing to say.
Samuel Johnson
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Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.
Samuel Johnson
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The faults of a man loved or honoured sometimes steal secretly and imperceptibly upon the wise and virtuous, but by injudicious fondness or thoughtless vanity are adopted with design.
Samuel Johnson
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Quote of the day
We owe something to extravagance, for thrift and adventure seldom go hand in hand.
Lady Randolph Churchill
Samuel Johnson
Creative Commons
Born:
September 18, 1709
Died:
December 13, 1784
(aged 75)
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