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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.

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
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Cannot
Comprehend
Nothing
Advancement
Mind
Disposition
Vulgar
Accounts
Minds
Vilify
Learning
Retard
Science
Tended

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Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement.
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Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.
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The peculiar doctrine of Christianity is that of a universal sacrifice and perpetual propitiation.
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Art hath an enemy called ignorance.
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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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The really happy woman is the one who can enjoy the scenery when she has to take a detour. Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but rather a manner of traveling.
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It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood.
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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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Fear naturally quickens the flight of guilt.
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The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
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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?
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When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
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Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
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Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.
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Inquiries into the heart are not for man.
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
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Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
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All the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil show it evidently to be a great evil.
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Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances it is often concealed in splendour, and often in extravagance.
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