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There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.

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
Hopeless
Useless
Sorrow
Wisdom

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There ambush here relentless ruffians lay, And here the fell attorney prowls for prey.
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These papers of the day have uses more adequate to the purposes of common life than more pompous and durable volumes.
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They who have already enjoyed the crowds and noise of the great city, know their desire to return is little more than the restlessness of a vacant mind, that they are not so much led by hope as driven by disgust, and wish rather to leave the country than to see the town.
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The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority.
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I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards.
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Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world.
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In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
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The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration.
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We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.
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A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.
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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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Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.
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In lapidary inscriptions a man is not upon oath.
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Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.
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The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
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It is in refinement and elegance that the civilized man differs from the savage.
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The botanist looks upon the astronomer as a being unworthy of his regard and he that is glowing great and happy by electrifying a bottle wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war and peace.
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Such is the constitution of man that labour may be styled its own reward nor will any external incitements be requisite, if it be considered how much happiness is gained, and how much misery escaped, by frequent and violent agitation of the body.
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Do not accustom yourself to consider debt only as an inconvenience you will find it a calamity.
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