Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of…

Samuel Johnson
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Those writers who lie on the watch for novelty can have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1804). The beauties of Samuel Johnson: maxims and observations. To which are now added, biographical anecdotes of the doctor, his life [&c.]., p.103
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Pity is not natural to man. Children are always cruel. Savages are always cruel. Pity is acquired and improved by the cultivation of reason. We may have uneasy sensations from seeing a creature in di … ▶
Among the calamities of war may be numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages. ✨ The Idler no. 30 (11 Nov. 1758)
When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully. ✨ Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 19 Sept. 1777)
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No mind is much employed upon the present; recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. ✨ Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1837). The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: With an Essay on … ▶

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