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The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before 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
Mind
Sight
Like
Losing
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More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
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It is in refinement and elegance that the civilized man differs from the savage.
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No evil is insupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.
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To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.
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Study requires solitude, and solitude is a state dangerous to those who are too much accustomed to sink into themselves
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As long as one lives he will have need of repentance.
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Sorrow is a kind of rust of the soul, which every new idea contributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of stagnant life, and is remedied by exercise and motion.
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You think I love flattery (says Dr. Johnson), and so I do but a little too much always disgusts me: that fellow Richardson, on the contrary, could not be contented to sail quietly down the stream of reputation, without longing to taste the froth from every stroke of the oar.
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We owe to memory not only the increase of our knowledge, and our progress in rational inquiries, but many other intellectual pleasures
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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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The maxim of Cleobulus, Mediocrity is best, has been long considered a universal principle, extending through the whole compass of life and nature. The experience of every age seems to have given it new confirmation, and to show that nothing, however specious or alluring, is pursued with propriety or enjoyed with safety beyond certain limits.
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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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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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Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
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Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
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Men have been wise in many different modes but they have always laughed the same way.
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When a Man is tried of London, he is tired of life.
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Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
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Care that is once enter'd into the breast Will have the whole possession ere it rest.
Samuel Johnson