Samuel Johnson Quotes
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Let observation with extensive viewSurvey mankind, from China to Peru.
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If lawyers were to undertake no causes till they were sure they were just, a man might be precluded altogether from a trial of his claim, though, were it judicially examined, it might be found a very just claim.
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The true art of memory is the art of attention.
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That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
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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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Cold approbation gave the ling'ring bays,For those who durst not censure, scarce could praise.
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I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me.
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He was a very good hater.
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In misery's darkest cavern known,His useful care was ever nighWhere hopeless anguish pour'd his groan,And lonely want retir'd to die.
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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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Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
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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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English superiority and American obedience.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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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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LEXICOGRAPHER - A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
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Officious, innocent, sincere,Of every friendless name the friend.
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The true Genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
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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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A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden.
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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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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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Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
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All this wealth excludes but one evil,-poverty.