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We suffer equal pain from the pertinacious adhesion of unwelcome images, as from the evanescence of those which are pleasing and useful.

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
Suffering
Adhesion
Pain
Evanescence
Unwelcome
Pleasing
Images
Useful
Suffer
Equal

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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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Smoking is a shocking thing - blowing smoke out of our mouths into other people's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us.
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No government power can be abused long. Mankind will not bear it.
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Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.
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Politeness is one of those advantages which we never estimate rightly but by the inconvenience of its loss.
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Terrestrial happiness is of short duration. The brightness of the flame is wasting its fuel the fragrant flower is passing away in its own odors.
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He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience. We have always protected the Americans we may therefore subject them to government.
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People may be taken in once, who imagine that an author is greater in private life than other men.
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Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the level he is unfit for marriage.
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Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.
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Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship.
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Sir, there is no end of negative criticism.
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I will be conquered I will not capitulate.
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You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense of their labor, than when you give money merely in charity.
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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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Distance either of time or place is sufficient to reconcile weak minds to wonderful relations.
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Nay, Madam, when you are declaiming, declaim and when you are calculating, calculate.
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What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
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Unless a woman has an amorous heart, she is a dull companion.
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The mischief of flattery is, not that it persuades any man that he is what he is not, but that it suppresses the influence of honest ambition, by raising an opinion that honour may be gained without the toil of merit.
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