Samuel Johnson Quotes
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Was ever poet so trusted before?
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A desire for knowledge is the natural feeling of mankind; and every human being, whose mind is not debauched, will be willing to give all he has to get knowledge.
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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
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Employment, sir, and hardships prevent melancholy.
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Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by.
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The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.
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A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.
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PATRON, n. One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, and is repaid in flattery.
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'Some,' answered Imlac, 'have indeed said that the soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
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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.
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While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
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He that overvalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
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'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.
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I refute it thus.
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'I fly from pleasure,' said the prince, 'because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miserable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others.'
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He left the name at which the world grew pale,To point a moral, or adorn a tale.
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That he delights in the misery of others no man will confess, and yet what other motive can make a father cruel?
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A generous and elevated mind is distinguished by nothing more certainly than an eminent degree of curiosity.
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No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
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What makes all doctrines plain and clear? About two hundred pounds a year. And that which was proved true before, prove false again? Two hundred more.
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Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
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Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
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Let him go abroad to a distant country; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil, where he is known.
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But, scarce observ'd, the knowing and the boldFall in the gen'ral massacre of gold.