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Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.

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
Experiments
Persuades
Convinced
Imbecility
Keep
Resolutions
Every
Frequency
Men
Experiment
Time
Resolution
Length
Naturally

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The future is bought with the present.
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No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
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We are more pained by ignorance than delighted by instruction.
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No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.
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Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.
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Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds! Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue!
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All unnecessary vows are folly, because they suppose a prescience of the future, which has not been given us.
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While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
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How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.
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Hoc age ['do this'] is the great rule, whether you are serious or merry whether ... learning science or duty from a folio, or floating on the Thames. Intentions must be gathered from acts.
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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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Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.
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We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
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The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
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Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
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Occupation alone is happiness.
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Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed.
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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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