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Assertion is not argument to contradict the statement of an opponent is not proof that you are correct.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
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The belief of immortality is impressed upon all men, and all men act under an impression of it, however they may talk, and though, perhaps, they may be scarcely sensible of it.
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As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it.
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What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.
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Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.
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As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.
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It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.
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We must consider how very little history there is--I mean real, authentic history. That certain kings reigned and certain battles were fought, we can depend upon as true but all the coloring, all the philosophy, of history is conjecture.
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My dear friend, clear your mind of can't.
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Timidity is a disease of the mind, obstinate and fatal for a man once persuaded that any impediment is insuperable has given it, with respect to himself, that strength and weight which it had not before.
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If the man who turnips cries, Cry not when his father dies, 'Tis proof that he had rather Have a turnip than his father.
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Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.
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Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
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The true effect of genuine politeness seems to be rather ease than pleasure.
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Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.
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Most men are more willing to indulge in easy vices than to practise laborious virtues.
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A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre.
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Games are good or bad as to their nature all may be perverted.
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Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
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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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Language is the dress of thought and as the noblest mien or most graceful action would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rusticks or mechanics, so the most heroick sentiments will lose their efficacy
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