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What signifies protesting so against flattery when a person speaks well of one, it must either be true or false, you know if true, let us rejoice in his good opinion if he lies, it is a proof at least that he loves more to please me, than to sit s

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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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Must
Opinion
Speaks
Good
Lying
False
Speak
Proof
True
Loves
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Persons
Lies
Protesting
Person
Please
Flattery
Wells
Either
Deceit
Well
Least
Rejoice

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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The balls of sight are so formed, that one man's eyes are spectacles to another, to read his heart with.
Samuel Johnson
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Every man is prompted by the love of himself to imagine that he possesses some qualities superior, either in kind or degree, to those which he sees allotted to the rest of the world.
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If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
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Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.
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In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.
Samuel Johnson
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The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
Samuel Johnson
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Men become friends by a community of pleasures.
Samuel Johnson
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At seventy-seven it is time to be in earnest.
Samuel Johnson
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The seeds of knowledge may be planted in solitude, but must be cultivated in public.
Samuel Johnson
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Virtue is too often merely local.
Samuel Johnson
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Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of language.
Samuel Johnson
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A man should be careful never to tell tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused at the time, but they will be remembered, and brought out against him upon some subsequent occasion.
Samuel Johnson
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Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
Samuel Johnson
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Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions
Samuel Johnson
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By those who look close to the ground dirt will be seen. I hope I see things from a greater distance.
Samuel Johnson
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Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
Samuel Johnson
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Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.
Samuel Johnson
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Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don't think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.
Samuel Johnson
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How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.
Samuel Johnson
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Politics are now nothing more than means of rising in the world.
Samuel Johnson