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As all error is meanness, it is incumbent on every man who consults his own dignity, to retract it as soon as he discovers it.

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
Every
Incumbent
Men
Incumbents
Discovers
Meanness
Error
Errors
Dignity
Consults
Soon
Retract

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Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.
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Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.
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Why, sir, Sherry is dull, naturally dull but it must have taken him a great deal of pains to become what we now see him. Such an excess of stupidity, Sir, is not in Nature.
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The misery of man proceeds not from any single crush of overwhelming evil, but from small vexations continually repeated.
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Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.
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Turn on the prudent Ant, thy heedful eyes, Observe her labours, Sluggard, and be wise.
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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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What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of the rest of the company.
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To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.
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No knowledge is useless, with the exception of heraldry.
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A married man has many cares, but a bachelor no pleasures.
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Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.
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There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
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No estimate is more in danger of erroneous calculations than those by which a man computes the force of his own genius.
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Was there ever yet anything written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?
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Other things may be seized by might, or purchased with money, but knowledge is to be gained only by study, and study to be prosecuted only in retirement.
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He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar and many fold in their passage while they lie waiting for the gale.
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