Quote

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.

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
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Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Hard
Pride
Destroyed
Wit
Wisdom
Tasks
Ages
Unprofitable
Age
Kept
Discussion
Eagerness
Keep
Gains
Proportion
Armies
Seems
Busy
Task
Contest
Power
Army
Gain
Possessions
Human
Questions
Useless
Humans
Importance
Possession
Contests

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Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause a while from learning to be wise. There mark what ills the scholar's life assail,- Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail.
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Learn the leading precognita of all things-no need to turn over leaf by leaf, but grasp the trunk hard and you will shake all the branches. Advice cherished by Samuel Johnson that that, if one is to master any subject, one must first discover its general principles.
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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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To dread no eye and to suspect no tongue is the great prerogative of innocence--an exemption granted only to invariable virtue.
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Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.
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Consider what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon that all the property in the world depends. We hang a thief for stealing a sheep but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep and farm and all from the right owner.
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Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from with'ring life away New forms arise, and diff'rent views engage
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Whatever is formed for long duration arrives slowly to its maturity.
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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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The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
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It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
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A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
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There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents every new genius produces some innovation, which, when invented and approved, subverts the rules which the practice of foregoing authors had established.
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Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach.
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What we read with inclination makes a much stronger impression. If we read without inclination, half the mind is employed in fixing the attention so there is but one half to be employed on what we read.
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Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
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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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Pleasure that is obtained by unreasonable and unsuitable cost must always end in pain.
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Inquiries into the heart are not for man.
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How can children credit the assertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be false? Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives
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