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Trust as little as you can to report, and examine all you can by your own senses.

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
Examine
Report
Reports
Senses
Trust
Littles
Little

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Rash oaths, whether kept or broken, frequently produce guilt.
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Economy is the parent of integrity, of liberty, and of ease, and the beauteous sister of temperance, of cheerfulness and health.
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An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.
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Our aspirations are our possibilities.
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Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.
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Just praise is only a debt, but flattery is a present.
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Politeness is fictitious benevolence.
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As a madman is apt to think himself grown suddenly great, so he that grows suddenly great is apt to borrow a little from the madman.
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It is man's own fault, it is from want of use, if his mind grows torpid in old age.
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Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
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Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions
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Had I learned to fiddle, I should have done nothing else.
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A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.
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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!
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Sir, it is wrong to stir up law-suits but when once it is certain that a law-suit is to go on, there is nothing wrong in a lawyer's endeavouring that he shall have the benefit, rather than another.
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There is no idleness, by which we are so easily seduced, as that which dignifies itself by the appearance of business, and by making the loiterer imagine that he has something to do which must not be neglected, keeps him in perpetual agitation, and hurries him rapidly from place to place.
Samuel Johnson
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Where there is no difficulty there is no praise.
Samuel Johnson
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How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?
Samuel Johnson
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A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain.
Samuel Johnson
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
Samuel Johnson