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To excite opposition and inflame malevolence is the unhappy privilege of courage made arrogant by consciousness of strength.

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
Arrogance
Opposition
Unhappy
Privilege
Courage
Inflame
Strength
Malevolence
Consciousness
Excite
Made
Arrogant

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Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent conciousness of guilt. Alas, it is only wisdom which perceives this tragedy.
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It is however, reasonable, to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance towards it, though we know it never can be reached.
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Very few live by choice. Every man is placed in his present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with which he did not always willingly cooperate and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbor better than his own.
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Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef.
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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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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
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I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.
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The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
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It is wonderful to think how men of very large estates not only spend their yearly income, but are often actually in want of money. It is clear, they have not value for what they spend.
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The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.
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All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
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There is no wisdom in useless and hopeless sorrow.
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Our aspirations are our possibilities.
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In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.
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It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
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Silence propagates itself, and the longer talk has been suspended, the more difficult it is to find anything to say.
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Discord generally operates in little things it is inflamed ... by contrariety of taste oftener than principles.
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He who endeavors to please must appear pleased.
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It seems to be remarkable that death increases our veneration for the good, and extenuates our hatred for the bad.
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This mournful truth is everywhere confessed, slow rises worth by poverty depressed.
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