Quote

In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.

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
Nature
Mine
Flowers
Radiation
Happens
Flower
Condition
Robes
Sometimes
Comfort
Appearance
Gloom
Men
Works
Prosperity
Barren
Conditions
Golden
Calamity
Secret
Anxiety
Concealed
Crags
Lying
Grief
Frequently
Bogs
Hope
Mines
Covered
Cheered

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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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It is not often that any man can have so much knowledge of another, as is necessary to make instruction useful.
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Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.
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And panting Time toil'd after him in vain.
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Where there is emulation, there will be vanity where there is vanity, there will be folly.
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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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I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
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When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.
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As long as one lives he will have need of repentance.
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Treating your adversary with respect is striking soft in battle.
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There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern.
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Long customs are not easily broken he that attempts to change the course of his own life very often labors in vain and how shall we do that for others, which we are seldom able to do for ourselves.
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There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
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A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.
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Memory is like all other human powers, with which no man can be satisfied who measures them by what he can conceive, or by what he can desire.
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So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something.
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So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.
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I have already enjoyed too much give me something to desire.
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What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.
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The wickedness of a loose or profane author is more atrocious than that of a giddy libertine or drunken ravisher, not only because it extends its effects wider, as a pestilence that taints the air is more destructive than poison infused in a draught, but because it is committed with cool deliberation.
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