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This is my history like all other histories, a narrative of misery.

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
Histories
Narrative
Misery
History
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More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make a book.
Samuel Johnson
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The care of the critic should be to distinguish error from inability, faults of inexperience from defects of nature.
Samuel Johnson
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Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
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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That eminence of learning is not to be gained without labour, at least equal to that which any other kind of greatness can require, will be allowed by those who wish to elevate the character of a scholar since they cannot but know that every human acquisition is valuable in proportion to the difficulty of its attainment.
Samuel Johnson
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No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
Samuel Johnson
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Our minds should not be empty because if they are not preoccupied by good, evil will break in upon them.
Samuel Johnson
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Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.
Samuel Johnson
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Still we love The evil we do, until we suffer it.
Samuel Johnson
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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
Samuel Johnson
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Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties.
Samuel Johnson
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Every man naturally persuades himself that he can keep his resolutions, nor is he convinced of his imbecility but by length of time and frequency of experiment.
Samuel Johnson
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Some claim a place in the list of patriots, by an acrimonious and unremitting opposition to the court. This mark is by no means infallible. Patriotism is not necessarily included in rebellion. A man may hate his king, yet not love his country.
Samuel Johnson
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It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.
Samuel Johnson
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How gloomy would be the mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die: that what now acts shall continue its agency, and what now thinks shall think on forever!
Samuel Johnson
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When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.
Samuel Johnson
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Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.
Samuel Johnson
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I know not anything more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation, or to register from time to time the difference between idea and reality. It is by this kind of observation that we grow daily less liable to be disappointed.
Samuel Johnson
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Consider what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon that all the property in the world depends. We hang a thief for stealing a sheep but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep and farm and all from the right owner.
Samuel Johnson
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Good breeding consists in having no particular mark of any profession, but a general elegance of manners.
Samuel Johnson