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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
Believe
Convinced
Never
Alive
Happiness
Hope
Found
Keep
Obtaining
Others
Possessed
Long
Believes

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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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Modern writers are the moons of literature they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.
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The coquette has companions, indeed, but no lovers,--for love is respectful and timorous and where among her followers will she find a husband?
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Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.
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A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write.
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Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.
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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.
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That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the character of a scholar since they cannot but know that every human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of its attainment.
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Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
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Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.
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No evil is insupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.
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If you are idle, be not solitary if you are solitary be not idle.
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The maxim of Cleobulus, Mediocrity is best, has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.
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We go from anticipation to anticipation, not from satisfaction to satisfaction.
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If he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.
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Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
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Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions
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Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
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Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
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