Quote

Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.

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
Heart
Points
Blockhead
Never
Wounds
Harass
Generous
Dart
Bitter
Blockheads
Grief
Griefs
Fate
Jest
Deep
Distress
Sure
Insult
Scornful

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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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We have always pretensions to fame which, in our own hearts, we know to be disputable.
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If the guardian or the mother Tell the woes of willful waste, Scorn their counsel and their pother, You can hang or drown at last.
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All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to show how much he can spare.
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As the greatest liar tells more truths than falsehoods, so may it be said of the worst man, that he does more good than evil.
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The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
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There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.
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The power of punishment is to silence, not to confute.
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Social sorrow loses half its pain.
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He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
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When we see our enemies and friends gliding away before us, let us not forget that we are subject to the general law of mortality, and shall soon be where our doom will be fixed forever.
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Art hath an enemy called ignorance.
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Study requires solitude, and solitude is a state dangerous to those who are too much accustomed to sink into themselves
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Misfortunes should always be expected.
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It is, indeed, at home that every man must be known by those who would make a just estimate either of his virtue or felicity for smiles and embroidery are alike occasional, and the mind is often dressed for show in painted honor, and fictitious benevolence.
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People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them.
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The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity... The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.
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This is my history like all other histories, a narrative of misery.
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The first step to greatness is to be honest.
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Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner.
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