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About this quote

What does it mean?
How a man lives matters more than how he dies, as death is brief.
In plain terms
Life matters more than death because death is short.
What can you take from it?
Focus on living well, not dying well.

Where it applies

  • reflecting on mortality
  • prioritizing actions
  • ethical living

Putting it to work

  • reflecting on life
  • prioritizing values

Questions to consider

  • What defines a good life?
  • How do we face death?

Another view

It might undervalue the significance of a peaceful death.

More from Samuel Johnson

  1. Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion.

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  2. That fellow seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.

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  3. So far is it from being true that men are naturally equal, that no two people can be half an hour together, but one shall acquire an evident superiority over t…

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