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Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

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
Harmless
Dictionary
Originals
Detailing
Original
Signification
Writer
Lexicographer
Literature
Drudge
Words
Dictionaries
Tracing

More quotes by Samuel Johnson

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Inquiries into the heart are not for man.
Samuel Johnson
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Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire.
Samuel Johnson
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No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.
Samuel Johnson
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Advice is offensive, it shows us that we are known to others as well as to ourselves.
Samuel Johnson
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Claret is the liquor for boys port for men but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
Samuel Johnson
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
Samuel Johnson
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It is our first duty to serve society.
Samuel Johnson
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None of the projects or designs which exercise the mind of man are equally subject to obstructions and disappointments with the pursuit of fame.
Samuel Johnson
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It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease.
Samuel Johnson
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Life of Ages, richly poured, Love of God unspent and free, Flowing in the Prophet's word And the People's liberty! Never was to chosen race That unstinted tide confined Thine is every time and place, Fountain sweet of heart and mind!
Samuel Johnson
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Wit will never make a man rich, but there are places where riches will always make a wit.
Samuel Johnson
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men do not suspect faults which they do not commit
Samuel Johnson
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The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment.
Samuel Johnson
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In solitude we have our dreams to ourselves, and in company we agree to dream in concert.
Samuel Johnson
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Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
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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This is my history like all other histories, a narrative of misery.
Samuel Johnson
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Patience and submission are very carefully to be distinguished from cowardice and indolence. We are not to repine, but we may lawfully struggle for the calamities of life, like the necessities of Nature, are calls to labor and diligence.
Samuel Johnson
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Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
Samuel Johnson
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Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.
Samuel Johnson