"I had done all that I could, and no Man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little."
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Quote collection
Samuel Johnson quotes (page 49 of 88)
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"Most minds are the slaves of external circumstances, and conform to any hand that undertakes to mould them."
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"The eye of the mind, like that of the body, can only extend its view to new objects, by losing sight of those which are now before it."
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"To have the management of the mind is a great art, and it may be attained in a considerable degree by experience and habitual exercise... Let him take a course of chemistry, or a course of rope-dance, or a course of any thing to which he is inclined at the time. Let him contrive to have as many retreats for his mind as he can, as many things to which it can fly from itself."
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"To mean understandings, it is sufficient honour to be numbered amongst the lowest labourers of learning; but different abilities must find different tasks. To hew stone, would have been unworthy of Palladio; and to have rambled in search of shells and flowers, had but ill suited with the capacity of Newton."
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"There is no observation more frequently made by such as employ themselves in surveying the conduct of mankind, than that marriage, though the dictate of nature, and the institution of Providence, is yet very often the cause of misery, and that those who enter into that state can seldom forbear to express their repentance, and their envy of those whom either chance or caution hath withheld from it."
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"Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile."
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"I would be loath to speak ill of any person who I do not know deserves it, but I am afraid he is an attorney."
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"Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of superiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most necessary or most judicious. But for the same reason everyone is eager to instruct his neighbours. To be wise or to be virtuous is to buy dignity and importance at a high price; but when nothing is necessary to elevation but detection of the follies or faults of others, no man is so insensible to the voice of fame as to linger on the ground."
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"Bashfulness may sometimes exclude pleasure, but seldom opens any avenue to sorrow or remorse."
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"It is unpleasing to represent our affairs to our own disadvantage; yet it is necessary to shew the evils which we desire to be removed."
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"A transition from an author's book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city."
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"Hope is itself a species of happiness."
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"What a strange narrowness of mind now is that, to think the things we have not known are better than the things we have known."
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"Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise."
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"Many useful and valuable books lie buried in shops and libraries, unknown and unexamined, unless some lucky compiler opens them by chance, and finds an easy spoil of wit and learning."
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"Some people have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat. For my part, I mind my belly very studiously, and very carefully; for I look upon it, that he who does not mind his belly will hardly mind anything else."
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"Books are faithful repositories, which may be awhile neglected or forgotten; but when they are opened again, will again impart their instruction: memory, once interrupted, is not to be recalled. Written learning is a fixed luminary, which, after the cloud that had hidden it has passed away, is again bright in its proper station. Tradition is but a meteor, which, if once it falls, cannot be rekindled."
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"Life will not bear refinement. You must do as other people do."
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"He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life."
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