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If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.

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
Men
Slander
Prove
Written
History
Character
Nothing

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Every advance into knowledge opens new prospects, and produces new incitements to farther progress.
Samuel Johnson
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This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to.
Samuel Johnson
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The insolence of wealth will creep out.
Samuel Johnson
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It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Samuel Johnson
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The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay.
Samuel Johnson
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There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner?
Samuel Johnson
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The end of writing is to instruct the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.
Samuel Johnson
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The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.
Samuel Johnson
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Those that have done nothing in life, are not qualified to judge of those that have done little
Samuel Johnson
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London! the needy villain's general home, The common sewer of Paris and of Rome! With eager thirst, by folly or by fate, Sucks in the dregs of each corrupted state.
Samuel Johnson
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It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.
Samuel Johnson
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There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
Samuel Johnson
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Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.
Samuel Johnson
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It is astonishing that any man can forbear enquiring seriously whether there is a God whether God is just whether this life is the only state of existence.
Samuel Johnson
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I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.
Samuel Johnson
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Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.
Samuel Johnson
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Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson
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If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.
Samuel Johnson
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Riches seldom make their owners rich.
Samuel Johnson