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I am a friend to subordination, as most conducive to the happiness of society. There is a reciprocal pleasure in governing and being governed.

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
Governed
Governing
Friend
Pleasure
Society
Happiness
Conducive
Subordination
Reciprocal

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I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
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No degree of knowledge attainable by man is able to set him above the want of hourly assistance.
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Being married to those sleepy-souled women is just like playing at cards for nothing: no passion is excited and the time is filled up. I do not, however, envy a fellow one of those honeysuckle wives for my part, as they are but creepers at best and commonly destroy the tree they so tenderly cling about.
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Love is only one of many passions.
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In a man's letters you know, Madam, his soul lies naked, his letters are only the mirror of his breast, whatever passes within him is shown undisguised in its natural process. Nothing is inverted, nothing distorted, you see systems in their elements, you discover actions in their motives.
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Every other enjoyment malice may destroy every other panegyric envy may withhold but no human power can deprive the boaster of his own encomiums.
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Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.
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You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.
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No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.
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Any of us would kill a cow rather than not have beef.
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Don't tell me of deception a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear.
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He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
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We often need reminding even if we do not often need educating.
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Revenge is an act of passion vengeance of justice. Injuries are revenged crimes are avenged.
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Faction seldom leaves a man honest, however it might find him.
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The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef love, like being enlivened with champagne.
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High people, sir, are the best take a hundred ladies of quality, you'll find them better wives, better mothers, more willing to sacrifice their own pleasures to their children, than a hundred other woman.
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We may have uneasy feelings for seeing a creature in distress without pity for we have not pity unless we wish to relieve them.
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Languages are the pedigree of nations.
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