Quote

He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing.

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
Course
Attraction
Harass
Desire
Desires
Attractions
Change
Arise
Rival
Till
Hesitate
Without
Pursuit
Advancing
Many
Objects
Prevail
Different
Focus
Rivals
Time
Courses
Frequently
Precluded

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Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.
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No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance, or to extinguish the desire of fond endearments and tender officiousness and, therefore, no one should think it unnecessary to learn those arts by which friendship may be gained.
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That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
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I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is more honorable to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.
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Domestic discord is not inevitably and fatally necessary but yet it is not easy to avoid.
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Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge, and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things, when they are shown their form or told their use.
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Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.
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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
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When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.
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To those who have lived long together, everything heard and everything seen recalls some pleasure communicated, some benefit conferred, some petty quarrel or some slight endearment. Esteem of great powers, or amiable qualities newly discovered may embroider a day or a week, but a friendship of twenty years is interwoven with the texture of life.
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He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.
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The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only a stage, and that the players are only players.
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The botanist looks upon the astronomer as a being unworthy of his regard and he that is glowing great and happy by electrifying a bottle wonders how the world can be engaged by trifling prattle about war and peace.
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Fate wings, with every wish, the afflictive dart, Each gift of nature, and each grace of art.
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I am willing to love all of mankind, except an American.
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These papers of the day have uses more adequate to the purposes of common life than more pompous and durable volumes.
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Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.
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Since life itself is uncertain, nothing which has life for its basis can boast much stability.
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Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
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All industry must be excited by hope.
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