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Firsts Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- The ambition of superior sensibility and superior eloquence disposes the lovers of arts to receive rapture at one time, and communicate it at another; and…
- Flattery pleases very generally. In the first place, the flatterer may think what he says to be true; but, in the second place, whether he…
- He that would be superior to external influences must first become superior to his own passions.
- There lurks, perhaps, in every human heart a desire of distinction, which inclines every man first to hope, and then to believe, that Nature has…
- It is our first duty to serve society.
- Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.
- Criticism, as it was first instituted by Aristotle, was meant as a standard of judging well.
- Avarice is generally the last passion of those lives of which the first part has been squandered in pleasure, and the second devoted to ambition.…
- The appearance and retirement of actors are the great events of the theatrical world; and their first performances fill the pit with conjecture and prognostication,…
- Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last; and perhaps always predominates in proportion to the strength of the contemplative…
- The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered.
- The truth is that the spectators are always in their senses, and know, from the first act to the last, that the stage is only…
- When a man marries a widow his jealousies revert to the past: no man is as good as his wife says her first husband was
- Attainment is followed by neglect, possession by disgust, and the malicious remark of the Greek epigrammatist on marriage may be applied to many another course…
- Every government is perpetually degenerating towards corruption, from which it must be rescued at certain periods by the resuscitation of its first principles, and the…
- If a madman were to come into this room with a stick in his hand, no doubt we should pity the state of his mind;…
- But to the particular species of excellence men are directed, not by an ascendant planet or predominating humour, but by the first book which they…
- 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…
- If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.
- The first step to greatness is to be honest.
More Firsts Quotes
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- Ironically, the first thing that appealed to me about Islam was its pluralism. The fact that the Koran praises all the great… — Karen Armstrong
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- For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first. — Aristotle
- He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled. — Aristotle
- Retired is being tired twice, I've thought, first tired of working, then tired of not. — Richard Armour