"It is a hopeless endeavour to unite the contrarieties of spring and winter; it is unjust to claim the privileges of age, and retain the play-things of childhood."
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Quote collection
Samuel Johnson quotes (page 29 of 88)
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"No man can fall into contempt but those who deserve it."
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"The round of a passionate man's life is in contracting debts in his passion, which his virtue obliges him to pay. He spends his time in outrage and acknowledgment, injury and reparation."
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"Admiration and love are like being intoxicated with champagne; judgment and friendship are like being enlivened."
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"Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence."
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"I hope I shall never be deterred from detecting what I think a cheat, by the menaces of a ruffian."
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"It is dangerous for mortal beauty, or terrestrial virtue, to be examined by too strong a light. The torch of Truth shows much that we cannot, and all that we would not, see."
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"Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates."
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"In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity; and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort; as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags."
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"No one ever became great by imitation."
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"That all who are happy are equally happy is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. A small drinking glass and a large one may be equally full, but the large one holds more than the small."
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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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"No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures."
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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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"Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil."
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"A vow is a snare for sin"
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"The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public."
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"It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the nicest judgment always distinguish accidental similitude from artful imitation."
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"Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price."
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"Hope is necessary in every condition."
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