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There must always be some advantage on one side or the other, and it is better that advantage should be had by talents than by chance.

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
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Chance
Better
Must
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It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives. The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time.
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An infallible characteristic of meanness is cruelty.
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I have adopted the Roman sentiment, that it is more honorable to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.
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No man should attempt to teach others what he has never learned himself
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Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.
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People seldom read a book which is given to them and few are given. The way to spread a work is to sell it at a low price. No man will send to buy a thing that costs even sixpence without an intention to read it.
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I never take a nap after dinner but when I have had a bad night, and then the nap takes me.
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Mutual cowardice keeps us in peace.
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Apologies are seldom of any use.
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The future is bought with the present.
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Pleasure itself is not a vice
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Liberty is the parent of truth, but truth and decency are sometimes at variance. All men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve, and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency.
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I wish there were some cure, like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession.
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A man has no more right to say an uncivil thing than to act one no more right to say a rude thing to another than to knock him down.
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None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falsehood.
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The specualtist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.
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Sir, I do not call a gamester a dishonest man but I call him an unsociable man, an unprofitable man. Gaming is a mode of transferring property without producing any intermediate good.
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Pain is less subject than pleasure to careless expression.
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