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Samuel Johnson Quotes

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'A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek'

'A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.'

'A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner'

'Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess'

'Bachelors have consciences, married men have wives.'

'Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.'

'Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect'

'Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.'

'From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life'

'He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them'

'He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade'

'He who praises everybody, praises nobody.'

'I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance'

'It is better to live rich than to die rich.'

'Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.'

'Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.'

'Melancholy, indeed, should be diverted by every means but drinking.'

'One of the disadvantages of wine is that it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.'

'Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.'

'Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.'

'Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.'

'So many objections may be made to everything, that nothing can overcome them but the necessity of doing something'

'That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.'

'The future is purchased by the present.'

'The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good'

'The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.'

'There are some men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.'

'What is easy is seldom excellent.'

'What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.'

'When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.'

'Without frugality none can be rich, and with it very few would be poor.'

'A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other'

'The finest landscape is improved by a good Pub in the foreground'

Born in Lichfield, Staffordshire
Died in London
More about Samuel Johnson

Links:
internal link Birthplace Museum
internal link Dr Johnsons House in London
internal link Buried Here

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Brit Quote:
Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
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On this day:
Mayflower lands - 1620, IRA Bomb Birmingham - 1974
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