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An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty.

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
Meanness
Infallible
Characteristic
Characteristics
Cruelty

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No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
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The king who makes war on his enemies tenderly distresses his subjects most cruelly.
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The fortitude which has encountered no dangers, that prudence which has surmounted no difficulties, that integrity which has been attacked by no temptation, can at best be considered but as gold not yet brought to the test, of which therefore the true value cannot be assigned.
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A writer who obtains his full purpose loses himself in his own lustre.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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Do not ... hope wholly to reason away your troubles do not feed them with attention, and they will die imperceptibly away. Fix your thoughts upon your business, fill your intervals with company, and sunshine will again break in upon your mind.
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The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
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He that never labors may know the pains of idleness, but not the pleasures.
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How small of all that human hearts endure/That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
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Whatever you have spend less.
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If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.
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People in general do not willingly read if they have anything else to amuse them.
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I am always for getting a boy forward in his learning, for that is sure good. I would let him at first read any English book which happens to engage his attention because you have done a great deal when you have brought him to have entertainment from a book. He'll get better books afterwards.
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A cow is a very good animal in the field but we turn her out of a garden.
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The safe and general antidote against sorrow is employment.
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Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
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That is the happiest conversation where there is no competition, no vanity, but a calm, quiet interchange of sentiments...
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Nobody can be taught faster than he can learn.
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Falsehood always endeavors to copy the mien and attitude of truth.
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