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We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Hope
Found
Keep
Obtaining
Others
Possessed
Long
Believes
Believe
Convinced
Never
Alive
Happiness

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No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people, and the wife is pleased that she is dressed.
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The roads of science are narrow, so that they who travel them, must wither follow or meet one another.
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Domestic discord is not inevitably and fatally necessary but yet it is not easy to avoid.
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Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.
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No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.... There is a remedy in human nature against tyranny, that will keep us safe under every form of government.
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How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
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Few things are so liberally bestowed, or squandered with so little effect, as good advice.
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The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.
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Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
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A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind, but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind.
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Claret is the liquor for boys port for men but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
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In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.
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Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner.
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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.
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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.
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Tears are often to be found where there is little sorrow, and the deepest sorrow without any tears.
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You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
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All is not gold that glitters, as we have often been told and the adage is verified in your place and my favour but if what happens does not make us richer, we must bid it welcome, if it makes us wiser.
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Few things are impossible to diligence and skill.
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The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
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