Samuel Johnson Quotes
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The true art of memory is the art of attention.
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The joy of life is variety; the tenderest love requires to be renewed by intervals of absence.
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Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. He has facts ready to his hand; so there is no exercise of invention. Imagination is not required in any high degree; only about as much as is used in the lower kinds of poetry.
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English superiority and American obedience.
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I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.
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I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.
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I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.
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A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.
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Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
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Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.
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A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet.
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There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
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Those writers who lay on the watch for novelty, could have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.
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It might as well be said, 'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.'
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Among the calamities of war may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.
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Catch then, O! catch the transient hour, Improve each moment as it flies; Life's a short Summer - man a flower, He dies - alas! how soon he dies!
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Johnson observed, that 'he did not care to speak ill of any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman was an attorney.'
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Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.
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All this wealth excludes but one evil,-poverty.
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A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.
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An age that melts in unperceiv'd decay,And glides in modest innocence away.
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I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.