“I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; — one, that I have lost all the names, — the other, that I have spent all the money.”

—  Samuel Johnson

1781, p. 477, Referring to subscribers to his edition of The Plays of William Shakespeare, with Notes (1765)
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784

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Variant: There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would take the other, for no man should take me alive. I should fight for liberty as long as my strength lasted.
Context: I had reasoned dis out in my mind; there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty, or death; if I could not have one, I would have de oder; for no man should take me alive; I should fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and when de time came for me to go, de Lord would let dem take me.

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