Samuel Johnson Quotes About Life
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Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.
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We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
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The truly strong and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.
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Learn that the present hour alone is man's.
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Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and when he has reached ground encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take care of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.
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Everything that enlarges the sphere of human powers, that shows man he can do what he thought he could not do, is valuable.
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That man is never happy for the present is so true, that all his relief from unhappiness is only forgetting himself for a little while. Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
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The drama's laws the drama's patrons give. For we that live to please must please to live.
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Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
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The love of life is necessary to the vigorous prosecution of any undertaking
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In life's last scene what prodigies surprise, Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise! From Marlborough's eyes the streams of dotage flow, And Swift expires a driveller and a show.
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It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.
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The disturbers of our happiness, in this world, are our desires, our griefs, and our fears.
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He that embarks on the voyage of life will always wish to advance rather by the impulse of the wind than the strokes of the oar; and many fold in their passage; while they lie waiting for the gale.
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Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
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When I find that so much of my life has stolen unprofitably away, and that I can descry by retrospection scarcely a few single days properly and vigorously employed, why do I yet try to resolve again? I try, because reformation is necessary and despair is criminal. I try, in humble hope of the help of God.
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The main of life is composed of small incidents and petty occurrences; of wishes for objects not remote, and grief for disappointments of no fatal consequence.
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Each change of many-colour'd life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagin'd new.
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Life affords no higher pleasure than that of surmounting difficulties, passing from one step of success to another, forming new wishes and seeing them gratified.
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Life, however short, is made still shorter by waste of time.
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Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
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Life consists not of a series of illustrious actions or elegant enjoyments. The greater part of our time passes in compliance with necessities, in the performance of daily duties, in the removal of small inconveniences, in the procurement of petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent interruption.
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Novelty is indeed necessary to preserve eagerness and alacrity; but art and nature have stores inexhaustible by human intellects, and every moment produces something new to him who has quickened his faculties by diligent observation.
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Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.
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A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune and favour cannot satisfy him.
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Life is a pill which none of us can bear to swallow without gilding.
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We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
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Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
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If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
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Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion.
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