Quote

The whole power of cunning is privative to say nothing, and to do nothing , is the utmost of its reach. Yet men, thus narrow by nature and mean by art, are sometimes able to rise by the miscarriages of bravery and the openness of integrity, and, watching failures and snatching opportunities, obtain advantages which belong to higher characters.

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
Power
Watching
Failures
Miscarriages
Character
Reach
Bravery
Snatching
Able
Advantage
Narrow
Miscarriage
Nothing
Characters
Belong
Utmost
Whole
Higher
Opportunities
Advantages
Sometimes
Opportunity
Rise
Obtain
Mean
Art
Thus
Cunning
Men
Nature
Integrity
Openness

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As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
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The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
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This world, where much is to be done and little to be known.
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Every man may be observed to have a certain strain of lamentation, some peculiar theme of complaint on which he dwells in his moments of dejection.
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Men become friends by a community of pleasures.
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It is generally agreed, that few men are made better by affluence or exaltation.
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It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest.
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The business of the biographer is often to pass slightly over those performances and incidents which produce vulgar greatness, to lead the thoughts into domestic privacies, and display the minute details of daily life, were exterior appendages are cast aside, and men excel each other only by prudence and virtue.
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Falsehood always endeavors to copy the mien and attitude of truth.
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There is nothing so minute, or inconsiderable, that I would not rather know it than not.
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That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
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Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.
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Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks. The flowers which scatter their odours from time to time in the paths of life, grow up without culture from seeds scattered by chance.
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Being reproached for giving to an unworthy person, Aristotle said, I did not give it to the man, but to humanity.
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Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
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Of all the griefs that harass the distress'd, Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest Fate never wounds more deep the generous heart, Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.
Samuel Johnson
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Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which, at the time of regular payment, will be missed and regretted.
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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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All envy is proportionate to desire we are uneasy at the attainments of another, according as we think our own happiness would be advanced by the addition of that which he withholds from us.
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God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?
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