The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson... |
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Common terms and phrases
able action appears attention believe body called cause character common condition conduct consider continued conversation danger death desire duty effects endeavour equally evil excellence expected eyes fall fear feel folly force fortune frequently future gain genius give given greater hand happen happiness heart hope hour human ideas imagination importance influence interest John Johnson kind knowledge known labour late Learning least less lives look mankind manner means mind misery moral nature necessary never objects observed occasion once opinion ourselves pain pass passions perhaps pleased pleasure possession praise present produce reason received regard remarked rest riches says seems seldom short sometimes soon suffer things thought tion Trans truth turn universal vice virtue whole wish writer
Popular passages
Page 35 - ... devout prayer to that eternal Spirit who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sends out his seraphim, with the hallowed fire of his altar, to touch and purify the lips of whom he pleases...
Page 242 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful.
Page 28 - Johnson: one, in particular, praised his impartiality ; observing, that he dealt out reason and eloquence, with an equal hand to both parties. " That is not quite true," said Johnson ; " I saved appearances tolerably well; but I took care that the WHIG DOGS should not have the best of it.
Page 69 - Ay, but to die, and go we know not where ; To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot; This sensible warm motion to become A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods...
Page 242 - All joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is produced by an act of the imagination, that realizes the event however fictitious, or approximates it however remote, by placing us, for a time, in the condition of him whose fortune we contemplate; so that we feel, while the deception lasts, whatever motions would be excited by the same good or evil happening to ourselves.
Page 259 - We then relax our vigour, and resolve no longer to be terrified with crimes at a distance, but rely upon our own constancy, and venture to approach what we resolve never to touch.
Page 245 - ... more knowledge may be gained of a man's real character by a short conversation with one of his servants, than from a formal and studied narrative, begun with his pedigree and ended with his funeral.
Page 183 - ... to our happiness. There is certainly no greater felicity, than to be able to look back on a life usefully and virtuously employed ; to trace our own progress in existence, by such tokens as excite neither shame nor sorrow.
Page 272 - To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labour tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
Page 100 - ... to obviate ; for such are the vicissitudes of the world, through all its parts, that day and night, labour and rest, hurry and retirement, endear each other ; such are the changes that keep the mind in action ; we desire, we pursue, we obtain, we are satiated ; we desire something else, and begin a new pursuit.