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Idleness and timidity often despair without being overcome, and forbear attempts for fear of being defeated and we may promote the invigoration of faint endeavors, by showing what has already been performed.

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
Despair
Idleness
Already
Attempts
Fear
Promote
Often
Defeated
Forbear
May
Showing
Timidity
Without
Endeavor
Endeavors
Overcome
Faint
Overcoming
Performed

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It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
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Art hath an enemy called ignorance.
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If the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
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How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
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Let us take a patriot, where we can meet him and, that we may not flatter ourselves by false appearances, distinguish those marks which are certain, from those which may deceive for a man may have the external appearance of a patriot, without the constituent qualities as false coins have often lustre, though they want weight.
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Justice is indispensably and universally necessary, and what is necessary must always be limited, uniform, and distinct
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He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.
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Sleep undisturbed within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine.
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Youth enters the world with very happy prejudices in her own favour.
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It is not possible to be regarded with tenderness, except by a few. That merit which gives greatness and renown diffuses its influence to a wide compass, but acts weakly on every single breast it is placed at a distance from common spectators, and shines like one of the remote stars, of which the light reaches us, but not the heat.
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Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.
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Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent conciousness of guilt. Alas, it is only wisdom which perceives this tragedy.
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The faults of a writer of acknowledged excellence are more dangerous, because the influence of his example is more extensive and the interest of learning requires that they should be discovered and stigmatized, before they have the sanction of antiquity conferred upon them, and become precedents of indisputable authority.
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The future is purchased by the present.
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Men have been wise in many different modes but they have always laughed the same way.
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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 wonderful when a calculation is made, how little the mind is actually employed in the discharge of any profession.
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Order is a lovely nymph, the child of Beauty and Wisdom her attendants are Comfort, Neatness, and Activity her abode is the valley of happiness: she is always to be found when sought for, and never appears so lovely as when contrasted with her opponent, Disorder.
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Many need no other provocation to enmity than that they find themselves excelled.
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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.
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