The mental disease of the present generation is impatience of study, contempt of the great masters of ancient wisdom, and a disposition to rely wholly upon unassisted genius and natural sagacity. The wits of these happy days have discovered a way to fame, which the dull caution of our laborious ancestors durst never attempt; they cut the knots of sophistry, which it was formerly the business of years to untie, solve difficulties by sudden irradiations of intelligence, and comprehend long processes of argument by immediate intuition. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on His Life and Genius /c by Arthur Murphy, Esq, p.237
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- Truth, Sir, is a cow which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are gone to milk the bull. ✨ 1763 Of sceptics. Remark, 21 Jul. Quoted in James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), v … ▶
- Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred … ▶
- It is very strange, and very melancholy, that the paucity of human pleasures should persuade us ever to call hunting one of them. ✨ In Hester Lynch Piozzi 'Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson' (1786 … ▶
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