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

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Whatever advantage we snatch beyond a certain portion allotted us by at nature, is like money spent before it is due, which, at the time of regular payment, will be missed and regretted.
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The most useful truths are always universal, and unconnected with accidents and customs.
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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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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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Riches seldom make their owners rich.
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Try and forget our cares and sickness, and contribute, as we can to the happiness of each other.
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The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
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As peace is the end of war, so to be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy.
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All truth is valuable, and satirical criticism may be considered as useful when it rectifies error and improves judgment he that refines the public taste is a public benefactor.
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Pleasure itself is not a vice
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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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None but a fool worries about things he cannot influence.
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Example is always more efficacious than precept.
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I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
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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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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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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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A mere literary man is a dull man a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.
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Words too familiar, or too remote, defeat the purpose of a poet. From those sounds which we hear on small or on coarse occasions, we do not easily receive strong impressions, or delightful images and words to which we are nearly strangers, whenever they occur, draw that attention on themselves which they should transmit to other things.
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Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.
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