Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, by James Boswell

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Original Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in journal entry, written by James Boswell. 26 Oct. 1769.

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Current Citation

Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, written by James Boswell, edited by David Womersley. Penguin Classics, 2008.

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A quote by Samuel Johnson about political progress: “Most schemes of political improvement are very laughable things.”

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Another quote by Samuel Johnson

Consider, Sir, how insignificant this will appear a twelvemonth hence.

Samuel Johnson

Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, by James Boswell

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Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in journal entry by James Boswell. 6 July 1763.

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Johnson, Samuel. Quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson, written by James Boswell, edited by David Womersley. Penguin Classics, 2008.

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Another quote from the 1760s

Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 1, ch. 1.

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 1, ch. 1.

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Another quote about Political progress

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers.

Calvin Coolidge

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Coolidge, Calvin. Speech on the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 150th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 5 July 1926, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

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