“It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them.”

— Samuel Johnson, The Idler

No. 58 (May 26, 1759)
The Idler (1758–1760)
Context: It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them.... Yet it is necessary to hope, though hope should always be deluded, for hope itself is happiness, and its frustrations, however frequent, are yet less dreadful than its extinction.

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Samuel Johnson362

English writer 1709–1784

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“It is seldom that we find either men or places such as we expect them.”

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