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Of the present state, whatever it be, we feel and are forced to confess the misery yet when the same state is again at a distance, imagination paints it as desirable.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
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Essayist
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Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
State
Confess
Whatever
Desirable
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Feel
Misery
Feels
Distance
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Present
Imagination
Paints

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Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
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The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence.
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As he that lives longest lives but a little while, every man may be certain that he has no time to waste. The duties of life are commensurate to its duration and every day brings its task, which, if neglected, is doubled on the morrow.
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Even those to whom Providence has allotted greater strength of understanding can expect only to improve a single science.
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Every cold empirick, when his heart is expanded by a successful experiment, swells into a theorist.
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Reflect that life, like every other blessing, Derives its value from its use alone.
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All industry must be excited by hope.
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Those who have no power to judge of past times but by their own, should always doubt their conclusions
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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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A man is very apt to complain of the ingratitude of those who have risen far above him.
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Books without the knowledge of life are useless.
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Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.
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Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be increased by short intermissions.
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It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.
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Those who will not take the trouble to think for themselves, have always somebody that thinks for them and the difficulty in writing is to please those from whom others learn to be pleased.
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An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty.
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You cannot give me an instance of any man who is permitted to lay out his own time contriving not to have tedious hours.
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There are innumerable questions to which the inquisitive mind can in this state receive no answer: Why do you and I exist? Why was this world created? Since it was to be created, why was it not created sooner?
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Want of tenderness is want of parts, and is no less a proof of stupidity than depravity.
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Profuseness is a cruel and crafty demon, that gradually involves her followers in dependence and debt that is, fetters them with irons that enter into their souls.
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