Quote

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.

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
Quietly
Froth
Every
Fellows
Disgusts
Always
Contrary
Stream
Oar
Love
Taste
Sail
Contented
Think
Says
Disgusting
Stroke
Thinking
Littles
Streams
Strokes
Little
Longing
Johnson
Without
Fellow
Flattery
Richardson
Much
Reputation

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
Samuel Johnson
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A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations to envy or malevolence, and has always a certain prospect of discovering new reasons for adoring the sovereign author of the universe.
Samuel Johnson
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He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds but he that endeavors after it by false merit, has to fear, not only the violence of the storm, but the leaks of his vessel.
Samuel Johnson
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It is much easier not to write like a man than to write like a woman.
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No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability.
Samuel Johnson
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Our aspirations are our possibilities.
Samuel Johnson
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It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.
Samuel Johnson
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Sir, he throws away his money without thought and without merit. I do not call a tree generous that sheds its fruit at every breeze.
Samuel Johnson
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Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.
Samuel Johnson
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Apologies are seldom of any use.
Samuel Johnson
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It is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Samuel Johnson
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Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
Samuel Johnson
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Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.
Samuel Johnson
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With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity.
Samuel Johnson
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Sir, if a man has a mind to prance, he must study at Christ Church and All Souls.
Samuel Johnson
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What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.
Samuel Johnson
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A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.
Samuel Johnson
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A lexicographer, a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Samuel Johnson
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It is so far from being natural for a man and woman to live in a state of marriage, that we find all the motives which they have for remaining in that connection, and the restraints which civilised society imposes to prevent separation, are hardly sufficient to keep them together.
Samuel Johnson
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A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.
Samuel Johnson