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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
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More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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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 is certainly no greater happiness than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed, to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.
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Wit is that which has been often thought, but never before was well expressed.
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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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The parallel circumstances and kindred images to which we readily conform our minds are, above all other writings, to be found in the lives of particular persons, and therefore no species of writing seems more worthy of cultivation than biography.
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A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre.
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Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.
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The size of a man's understanding might always be justly measured by his mirth.
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None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
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Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
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Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
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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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Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves.
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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.
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It was said of Euripides, that every verse was a precept and it may be said of Shakespeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence.
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The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.
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When making your choice in life, do not neglect to live.
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The world will never be long without some good reason to hate the unhappy their real faults are immediately detected and if those are not sufficient to sink them into infamy, an individual weight of calumny will be super-added.
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Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.
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A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.
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