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

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In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind.
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No man hates him at whom he can laugh.
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Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
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Sorrow is the mere rust of the soul. Activity will cleanse and brighten it.
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The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected.
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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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Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.
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No wonder, Sir, that he is vain a man who is perpetually flattered in every mode that can be conceived. So many bellows have blown the fire, that one wonders he is not by this time become a cinder.
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The hapless wit has his labors always to begin, the call for novelty is never satisfied, and one jest only raises expectation of another.
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I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.
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Care that is once enter'd into the breast Will have the whole possession ere it rest.
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To wipe all tears from off all faces is a task too hard for mortals but to alleviate misfortunes is often within the most limited power: yet the opportunities which every day affords of relieving the most wretched of human beings are overlooked and neglected with equal disregard of policy and goodness.
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No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of spring.
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Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.
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Praise, like gold and diamonds, owes its value only to its scarcity. It becomes cheap as it becomes vulgar, and will no longer raise expectation or animate enterprise.
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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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A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected.
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