The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.


Samuel Johnson

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The usual fortune for complaint is to excite contempt more than pity
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The great Cham of literature. (Samuel Johnson)
TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT
Samuel Johnson said Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, "tuned the English tongue.
HAROLD BLOOM
Don't tell your complaint to one who has no pity.
IRISH PROVERB
Man is so much more sensitive to the contempt of others than to contempt for himself.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.” ~ Samuel John...
J.J. MCAVOY
More than fortune, more than fame...is the love of the game.
JACEY R. FOLEY
No complaint... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.
ADAM SMITH
No complaint ... is more common than that of a scarcity of money.
ADAM SMITH
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to thr...
EDWARD M. HALLOWELL
To show pity is felt as a sign of contempt because one has clearly ceased to be an object of fear as...
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE
Misfortune, and recited misfortune especially, can be prolonged to the point where it ceases to exci...
DOROTHY PARKER
Misfortune, and recited misfortune especially, may be prolonged to the point where it ceases to exci...
DOROTHY PARKER
Nothing is more dangerous to men than a sudden change of fortune.
QUINTILIAN
During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN
During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoyin...
FRED ALLEN
The usual complaint is, 'I have no other way of earning a living.' The harsh reply can be, &...
TERTULLIAN
Pity speaks to grief More sweetly than a band of instruments.
BARRY CORNWALL
Pity speaks to grief More sweetly than a band of instruments.
BRYAN PROCTER
One is never more on trial than in the moment of excessive good fortune.
LEW WALLACE
Life seemed even more of a guessing game than usual.
JULIAN BARNES
Action makes more fortune than caution.
LUC DE CLAPIERS
Action makes more fortune than caution
VAUVENARGUES, MARQUIS DE
Action makes more fortune than caution
VAUVENARGUES MARQUIS DE
Action makes more fortune than caution.
CHARLOTTE WHITTON
It is more easy to get a favor from fortune than to keep it
PUBLILIUS SYRUS
(Bryant) was a little more passive than usual.
MIKE D'ANTONI
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple pity that will not forsake us
GEORGE ELIOT
This latest complaint filed by a group of left-leaning clergy amounts to nothing more than a campaig...
GILES HUDSON
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.
GEORGE ELIOT
It?s a slippery snow - more slippery than usual.
CAPT. DAVID FERLAND
To go back and read Swift and Defoe and Samuel Johnson and Smollett and Pope - all those people we h...
DAVID MCCULLOUGH
When I slept it was literally in the midst of an arsenal. If I heard dogs bark more fiercely than us...
FRANK JAMES
We continue to have little rain and the vegetation is drier than usual, so the potential for more fi...
DANIEL MCCARTHY
Nothing contributes to the entertainment of the reader more, than the change of times and the viciss...
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
Anger and hate against one we love steels our hearts, but contempt or pity leaves us silent and asha...
EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS
Often the contempt of vainglory becomes a source of even more vainglory, for it is not being scorned...
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnso...
JAMES BOSWELL
I suppose no person ever enjoyed with more relish the infusion of this fragrant leaf than did Johnso...
JAMES BOSWELL
It's ironic that in our culture everyone's biggest complaint is about not having enough time; yet no...
DENNIS MILLER
Anyone who acquires more than the usual amount of knowledge concerning a subject is bound to leave i...
LIBERTY HYDE BAILEY
He's the best shooter we have. He got more open looks than usual.
GARRICK PHILLIPS
It's better than expected, above all in fashion and leather goods and wines and spirits. The tone of...
ANTOINE BELGE
This is a lot more fun than my regular work. There's no waiting on all the usual permitting.
AMY NICHOLS
Whenever Mr. Johnson sent out flowers of condolence, he asked for red roses more often than not.
NORMAN WILLIAMS
We've talked a lot lately, more than usual. We had to. He is hanging in there. He's doing alright.
MICHAEL VICK
We ought to give thanks for all fortune: it is is good, because it is good, if bad, because it works...
C.S. LEWIS
The hiring of Rob Katz is a sign of business as usual. He is familiar with the business more so than...
WILL MARKS
Providence is a greater mystery than revelation. The state of our world is more humiliating to our r...
RICHARD CECIL
Nothing is more usual than the sight of old people who yearn for retirement: and nothing is so rare...
CHARLES DE SAINT-EVREMOND
Nothing is more usual than the sight of old people who yearn for retirement: and nothing is so rare ...
CHARLES DE SAINT-EVREMOND
It seems more cold than usual, but really it's very, very close to what's normal.
HARRY HILLAKER
Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved. -Barbara Johnson.
BARBARA JOHNSON
The shape of evil is much more superficiality and blindness than the usual list of hot sins. God hid...
RICHARD ROHR
Complaint less, appreciate more.
SUPERNA BATHEJA
The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedo...
SIR JOHN MORTIMER
The freedom to make a fortune on the stock exchange has been made to sound more alluring than freedo...
JOHN MORTIMER
The revision of the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings, undertaken towards the end of the Babylonian...
JULIUS WELLHAUSEN
For the sense of smell, almost more than any other, has the power to recall memories and it is a pit...
RACHEL CARSON
Nothing will stifle your human evolution more than fame and fortune.
PATTI SMITH
What is required is sight and insight; then you might add one more -- excite.
ROBERT FROST
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
An accumulation of pennies is a fortune. Day-to-day practice is perfection. A dream realized is noth...
RICHELLE E. GOODRICH
Customers' complaint is a hard-earned lesson to learn to be compliant than complacent.
ANUJ SOMANY
It's nice to be recognized like this. This year we have a few more than usual.
BOB LUDWIG
How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a ...
PAUL SWEENEY
Commemoration of Samuel Seabury, First Anglican Bishop in North America, 1796 [Dr. Johnson to a Q...
SAMUEL JOHNSON
It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit...
FRANCESCO PETRARCH
It is more honorable to be raised to a throne than to be born to one. Fortune bestows the one, merit...
PETRARCH
Much of my good fortune was a matter of nothing more clever on my part than luck.
JAMES FIXX
They understood that brave men could be injured more by pity than by disease.
DAN GROAT
And the more pity that great folk should have count'nance in this world to drown or hang themselves...
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
It's a little more than usual. I've seen several people. It's a major aggravation.
DR. KENNY HINES
There was about 20 to 25 percent more business than usual. We love it. Bring it back.
DAWNE MASSEY
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self th...
W. E. B. DU BOIS
That hatred springs more from self-contempt than from a legitimate grievance is seen in the intimate...
ERIC HOFFER
The earnings were about a penny or two more than expectation, but because the source was investment ...
JAMES SCHMIDT
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt.
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt
NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI
One of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that, on the whole, success depends mor...
WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY
There is no greater evil for men than the constraint of fortune.
SOPHOCLES
With a modest amount of looks and talent and more than a modicum of serendipity, I've managed to str...
ROBERT VAUGHN
People don't seem distracted, but I sure have seen a lot of really big smiles, way more than is usua...
JOY CHANDLER
Explain it as we may, a martial strain will urge a man into the front rank of battle sooner than an ...
HENRY TUCKERMAN
Being asked by a young nobleman, what was become of the gallantry and military spirit of the old Eng...
JAMES BOSWELL
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but...
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Pity may represent little more than the impersonal concern which prompts the mailing of a check, but...
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
It's an odd arrangement of competition and cooperation, ... Because [the joint venture] is Netscape ...
ANDREA WILLIAMS
When you're socially awkward, you're isolated more than usual, and when you're isolated more than us...
CRISS JAMI
Nobody wants campaign finance reform more than me. It would save me a fortune.
ANDREW TOBIAS
I've been more bossed by my fortune than it has been bossed by me.
JOHN P. LIPPETT
He was a little more passive than usual. He missed some shots that he normally makes.
MIKE D'ANTONI
We're expecting to see a lot more foot traffic than usual, ... Trash bins and portable toilets will ...
LARRY BAKER
I have no pity! I have no pity! The more worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails!...
EMILY BRONTë
We've been getting more than a thousand complaint calls a day for the last week. We can't do much to...
BOB JOHANNESSEN
The SEC is launching more investigations into more big companies than ever before, ... The list of t...
ARTHUR LEVITT
Shame evokes anxiety about what will happen if someone really knows is, but, because it is impossibl...
WENDY J. MAHILL
Get more confidence by doing things that excite and frighten you.
JESSICA WILLIAMS
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's sel...
W. E. B. DU BOIS
And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the...
BIBLE

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He who praises every body, praises nobody.
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He that will enjoy the brightness of sunshine, must quit the coolness of the shade.
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Gloomy calm of idle vacancy.
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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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Do not discourage your children from hoarding, if they have a taste to it; whoever lays up his penny...
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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 have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: ...
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The habit of looking on the bright side of every event is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.
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Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.
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By taking a second wife he pays the highest compliment to the first, by showing that she made him so...
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It is not from reason and prudence that people marry, but from inclination.
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Marriage is the best state for man in general, and every man is a worst man in proportion to the lev...
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A man is in general better pleased when he has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talk...
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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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We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the potentiality of growing rich beyond t...
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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 will be conquered; I will not capitulate.
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"He was a very good hater."
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I like a good hater.
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Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the...
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In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.
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Language is only the instrument of science, and words are but the signs of ideas.
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Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purc...
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My congratulations to you, sir. Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good...
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Pride is seldom delicate; it will please itself with very mean advantages.
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Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.
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The applause of a single human being is of great consequence.
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He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
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The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispe...
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Hunger is never delicate; they who are seldom gorged to the full with praise may be safely fed with ...
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I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be sile...
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The true art of memory is the art of attention.
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What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.
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The Irish are a fair people: They never speak well of one another.
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The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees is the high road that leads him to England.
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Much may be made of a Scotchman, if he be caught young.
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Difficult do you call it, Sir? I wish it were impossible.
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It is the only sensual pleasure without vice.
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That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.
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There are few minds to which tyranny is not delightful.
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The majority have no other reason for their opinions than that they are the fashion.
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No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.
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Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.
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If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many thing...
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Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
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If a man could say nothing against a character but what he can prove, history could not be written.
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I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the ...
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Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
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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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What provokes your risibility, Sir? Have I said anything that you understand? Then I ask pardon of t...
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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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A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk.
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Disease generally begins that equality which death completes.
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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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It seems not more reasonable to leave the right of printing unrestrained, because writers may be aft...
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Censure is willingly indulged, because it always implies some superiority: men please themselves wit...
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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...
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A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.
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Such is the state of life, that none are happy but by the anticipation of change: the change itself ...
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I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life: it generates kindness, and...
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Self-love is often rather arrogant than blind; it does not hide our faults from ourselves, but persu...
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Were it not for imagination a man would be as happy in arms of a chambermaid as of a duchess.
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Is not a patron, my lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, an...
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Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch who supports with insolence, a...
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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
No one ever became great by imitation.
SAMUEL JOHNSON