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I have no more pleasure in hearing a man attempting wit and failing, than in seeing a man trying to leap over a ditch and tumbling into it
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
Seeing
Tumbling
Pleasure
Ditch
Trying
Attempting
Men
Wit
Leap
Hearing
Speech
Failing
More quotes by Samuel Johnson
Music is the only sensual pleasure without vice.
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Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.
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Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
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Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.
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I am very fond of the company of ladies. I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity, and I like their silence.
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Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can and conquered they must be, or neither wisdom nor happiness can be attained: but those who are not yet subject to their influence may, by timely caution, preserve their freedom.
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Knock the 't' off the 'can't.'
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I have found men to be more kind than I expected, and less just.
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Prudence is an attitude that keeps life safe, but does not often make it happy.
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It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
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Hope is necessary in every condition.
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It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.
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It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.
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He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces.
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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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Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
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The equity of Providence has balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments.
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In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
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He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
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Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.
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