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He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
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Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Pursue
Trusts
False
Leaks
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Fame
Vessel
Wind
Winds
Violence
Endeavor
Happiness
Merit
Fear
Storm
Pursues

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The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence.
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Games are good or bad as to their nature all may be perverted.
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Never trust your tongue when your heart is bitter.
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A blade of grass is always a blade of grass, whether in one country or another.
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Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.
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Nature has given women so much power that the law has very wisely given them little.
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When once the forms of civility are violated, there remains little hope of return to kindness or decency.
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One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.
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The trade of advertising is now so near to perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercized in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.
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When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.
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Wickedness is always easier than virtue for it takes the short cut to everything.
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We often need reminding even if we do not often need educating.
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Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
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Applause abates diligence.
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The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.
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In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.
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The true genius is a mind of large general powers, accidentally determined to some particular direction.
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We have now learned that rashness and imprudence will not be deterred from taking credit let us try whether fraud and avarice may be more easily restrained from giving it.
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Discord generally operates in little things it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.
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Adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.
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