Of all the griefs that harass the distressed, sure the most bitter is a scornful jest


Samuel Johnson

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Of all the griefs that harass the distrest,
Sure the most bitter is a scornful jest.
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It is very natural for young men to be vehement, acrimonious and severe. For as they seldom comprehe...
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He who praises every body, praises nobody.
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Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
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When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
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No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
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Whatever you have spend less.
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There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
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What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.
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Books that you carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are most useful after all.
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He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and...
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The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illust...
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This merriment of parsons is mighty offensive.
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The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
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I like a good hater.
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He who has provoked the shaft of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
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Perhaps man is the only being that can properly be called idle.
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Turn on the prudent ant thy heedful eyes. Observe her labors, sluggard, and be wise.
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Lawyers know life practically. A bookish man should always have them to converse with.
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The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.
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Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
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Knowledge always demands increase; it is like fire, which must first be kindled by some external age...
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Knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
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All wonder is the effect of novelty on ignorance.
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Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upo...
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Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hangi...
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A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
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There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a...
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There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good unti...
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Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
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The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. B...
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Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially ...
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Players, Sir! I look on them as no better than creatures set upon tables and joint stools to make fa...
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Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as m...
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Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes ...
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When speculation has done its worst, two and two still make four.
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Sir, I have found you an argument. I am not obliged to find you an understanding.
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No member of society has the right to teach any doctrine contrary to what society holds to be true.
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Bravery has no place where it can avail nothing.
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He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
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Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it ...
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Sir, you have but two topics, yourself and me. I am sick of both.
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Surely a long life must be somewhat tedious, since we are forced to call in so many trifling things ...
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There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.
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It generally happens that assurance keeps an even pace with ability.
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When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.
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Extended empires are like expanded gold, exchanging solid strength for feeble splendor.
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Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not...
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Prepare for death, if here at night you roam, and sign your will before you sup from home.
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The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of ...
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I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
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Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.
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He who waits to do a great deal of good at once, will never do anything.
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You are much surer that you are doing good when you pay money to those who work, as the recompense o...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persu...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, an...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, a...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and la...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bul...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly beco...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Suspicion is most often useless pain.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he whose real wants are supplied must admit tho...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
I have always considered it as treason against the great republic of human nature, to make any man's...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
We are inclined to believe those whom we don not know because they have never deceived us.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Small debts are like small gun shot; they are rattling around us on all sides and one can scarcely e...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous mind.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. He whom natur...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be sile...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
He that pursues fame with just claims, trusts his happiness to the winds; but he that endeavors afte...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
To get a name can happen but to few; it is one of the few things that cannot be brought. It is the f...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again exp...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying t...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
I know not any thing more pleasant, or more instructive, than to compare experience with expectation...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
It is generally known, that he who expects much will be often disappointed; yet disappointment seldo...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: b...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Nothing is more common than mutual dislike, where mutual approbation is particularly expected.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The chains of habit are generally too week to be felt, until they are too strong to be broken.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The habit of looking on the best side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a years.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till grief be digested, ...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
He was dull in a new way, and that made many think him great.
SAMUEL JOHNSON