Words are but the signs of ideas. ✨ 'A Dictionary of the English Langu…

Samuel Johnson
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Words are but the signs of ideas. ✨ 'A Dictionary of the English Language' (1755) preface.
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He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: with Murphy's essay, p … ▶
I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance. ✨ In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 374 (November 1784)
Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence behind him, the new generations have all to learn. There ma … ▶
I would advise no man to marry who is not likely to propagate understanding. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1836). Johnsoniana; or supplement to Boswell; being Anecdotes and sayings of Dr. Johnson, etc, p.34
This was a good dinner enough, to be sure, but it was not a dinner to ask a man to. ✨ Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 31 July 1763)

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