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Long customs are not easily broken he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.

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
Often
Vain
Others
Easily
Change
Tradition
Able
Labor
Long
Broken
Labors
Life
Shall
Attempts
Courses
Customs
Course
Seldom

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Wheresoe'er I turn my view, All is strange, yet nothing new: Endless labor all along, Endless labor to be wrong: Phrase that Time has flung away Uncouth words in disarray, Trick'd in antique ruff and bonnet, Ode, and elegy, and sonnet.
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He that wishes to see his country robbed of its rights cannot be a patriot.
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I soon found that wit, like every other power, has its boundaries that its success depends upon the aptitude of others to receive impressions and that as some bodies, indissoluble by heat, can set the furnace and crucible at defiance, there are min
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Life protracted is protracted woe.
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No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
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Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise.
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He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt.
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Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.
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I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.
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The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.
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Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.
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Round numbers are always false.
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All industry must be excited by hope.
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The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.
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No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.
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So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.
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The hostility perpetually exercised between one man and another, is caused by the desire of many for that which only few can possess. Every man would be rich, powerful, and famous yet fame, power, and riches, are only the names of relative conditions, which imply the obscurity, dependence, and poverty of greater numbers.
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It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.
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Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation.
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As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness if often covered by turbulence and hurry.
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