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Samuel Johnson Quotations

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Samuel Johnson
1709-1784 (Age at death: 75 approx.)

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 [O.S. 7 September] - 13 December 1784), often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and political conservative, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature": James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson.

Johnson was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and attended Pembroke College, Oxford for a year, before his lack of funds forced him to leave. After working as a teacher he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography The Life of Richard Savage, the poems London and The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the play Irene.

7 Quotation(s) Total:

     Page 1 of 1

Adversity has ever been considered as the state in which a man most easily becomes acquainted with himself, being free from flatterers.
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Samuel Johnson

It is generally the fate of a double dealer, to lose his power and keep his enemies.
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Samuel Johnson

Pleasure is very seldom found where it is sought. Our brightest blazes are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
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Samuel Johnson

Power and wealth supply the place of each other. Power confers the ability of gratifying our desires without the consent of others; wealth enables us to obtain the consent of others to our gratification. Power, simply considered, whatever it confers on one, must take from another. Wealth enables its owner to give it to others by taking only from himself. Power pleases the violent and the proud; wealth delights the placid and the timorous. Youth, ...
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Samuel Johnson

Power and wealth supply the place of each other. Power confers the ability of gratifying our desires without the consent of others; wealth enables us to obtain the consent of others to our gratification. Power, simply considered, whatever it confers on one, must take from another. Wealth enables its owner to give it to others by taking only from himself. Power pleases the violent and the proud; wealth delights the placid and the timorous. Youth, ...
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Samuel Johnson

The foundation of content must spring from the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.
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Samuel Johnson

The true art of memory is the art of attention.
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Samuel Johnson

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