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The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.

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
Expenses
Ridiculous
Position
Pleasure
Damnable
Expense
Fleeting

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Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.
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We all live upon the hope of pleasing somebody, and the pleasure of pleasing ought to be greatest, and at last always will be greatest, when our endeavours are exerted in consequence of our duty.
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Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.
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He to whom many objects of pursuit arise at the same time, will frequently hesitate between different desires till a rival has precluded him, or change his course as new attractions prevail, and harass himself without advancing.
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You never find people laboring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful income.
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Yet reason frowns in war's unequal game, Where wasted nations raise a single name And mortgag'd states their grandsire's wreaths regret, From age to age in everlasting debt Wreaths which at last the dear-bought right convey To rust on medals, or on stones decay.
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There are, indeed, few kinds of composition from which an author, however learned or ingenious, can hope a long continuance of fame.
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To be of no Church is dangerous.
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Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull.
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The time will come to every human being when it must be known how well he can bear to die.
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Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.
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No one is much pleased with a companion who does not increase, in some respect, their fondness for themselves.
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Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.
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It was the maxim, I think, of Alphonsus of Aragon, that dead counsellors are safest. The grave puts an end to flattery and artifice, and the information we receive from books is pure from interest, fear, and ambition. Dead counsellors are likewise most instructive, because they are heard with patience and with reverence.
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I am not so lost in lexicography as to forget that words are the daughters of earth, and that things are the sons of heaven.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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