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Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

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
Days
Attain
Wish
Nights
Night
Volume
Give
Wishes
Addison
Must
Whoever
Ostentatious
Giving
Familiar
Volumes
English
Coarse
Style
Elegant

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Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.
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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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No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction. A man is pleased that his wife is dressed as well as other people, and the wife is pleased that she is dressed.
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To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which one of the Fathers observes to be not a virtue, but the groundwork of virtue.
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Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those who we cannot resemble.
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I inherited a vile melancholy from my father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober.
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He who sees different ways to the same end, will, unless he watches carefully over his own conduct, lay out too much of his attention upon the comparison of probabilities and the adjustment of expedients, and pause in the choice of his road, till some accident intercepts his journey.
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A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.
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In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.
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Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?
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Getting money is not all a man's business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
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This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.
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Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.
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People seldom read a book which is given to them and few are given. The way to spread a work is to sell it at a low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence without an intention to read it.
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Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.
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Curiosity, like all other desires, produces pain as well as pleasure.
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An epithet or metaphor drawn from nature ennobles art an epithet or metaphor drawn from art degrades nature.
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About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.
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The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration.
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The lust of gold succeeds the rage of conquest The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless! The last corruption of degenerate man.
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