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Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.

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
Happiness
Fear
Without
Must
Something
Solid
Uncertainty
Permanent

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It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.
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The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.
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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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Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will shake all the branches. Advice cherished by Samuel Johnson that that, if one is to master any subject, one must first discover its general principles.
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Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.
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Men seldom give pleasure when they are not pleased themselves.
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To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.
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None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
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It is not often that any man can have so much knowledge of another, as is necessary to make instruction useful.
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Pain and disease awaken us to convictions which are necessary to our moral condition.
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You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.
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It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.
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The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality.
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Nothing has tended more to retard the advancement of science than the disposition in vulgar minds to vilify what they cannot comprehend.
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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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It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
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But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they read, some early conversation which they heard, or some accident which excited ardour and emulation.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.
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The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
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