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Cautious age suspects the flattering form, and only credits what experience tells.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
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Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
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Flattering
Cautious
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Our desires always increase with our possessions. The knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.
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Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience.
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Those who are in the power of evil habits must conquer them as they can and conquered they must be, or neither wisdom nor happiness can be attained: but those who are not yet subject to their influence may, by timely caution, preserve their freedom.
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I will take no more physick, not even my opiates for I have prayed that I may render up my soul to God unclouded.
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The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.
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High people, sir, are the best take a hundred ladies of quality, you'll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing to sacrifice their own pleasures to their children, than a hundred other woman.
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There is, indeed, nothing that so much seduces reason from vigilance, as the thought of passing life with an amiable woman.
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So scanty is our present allowance of happiness that in many situations life could scarcely be supported if hope were not allowed to relieve the present hour by pleasures borrowed from the future.
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What is good only because it pleases cannot be pronounced good till it has been found to please.
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No man hates him at whom he can laugh.
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Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.
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It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.
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Everybody loves to have things which please the palate put in their way, without trouble or preparation.
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I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.
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The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do or who do nothing.
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Sir, if a man has a mind to prance, he must study at Christ Church and All Souls.
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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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Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.
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The business of life summons us away from useless grief, and calls us to the exercise of those virtues of which we are lamenting our deprivation.
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We often need reminding even if we do not often need educating.
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