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Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can and conquered they must be, or neither wisdom nor happiness can be attained: but those who are not yet subject to their influence may, by timely caution, preserve their freedom.

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
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Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Happiness
Habits
Freedom
Conquer
Evil
Subject
Timely
Power
Neither
Conquered
May
Subjects
Attained
Must
Habit
Caution
Influence
Preserve
Wisdom
Preserves

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If the guardian or the mother Tell the woes of willful waste, Scorn their counsel and their pother, You can hang or drown at last.
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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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Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.
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Being married to those sleepy-souled women is just like playing at cards for nothing: no passion is excited and the time is filled up. I do not, however, envy a fellow one of those honeysuckle wives for my part, as they are but creepers at best and commonly destroy the tree they so tenderly cling about.
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Every man is of importance to himself.
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Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.
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The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.
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The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.
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Few have abilities so much needed by the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms and he that will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments must submit to the fate of just sentiment meanly expressed, and be ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood.
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Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience.
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The roads of science are narrow, so that they who travel them, must wither follow or meet one another.
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Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.
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There is a frightful interval between the seed and the timber.
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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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We are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction.
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Every man may be observed to have a certain strain of lamentation, some peculiar theme of complaint on which he dwells in his moments of dejection.
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Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
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I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
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Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them.
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