Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and committed Tory, and has been described as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is also the subject of "the most famous single biographical work in the whole of literature," James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth18 September 1709
Liberty is the parent of truth, but truth and decency are sometimes at variance. All men and all propositions are to be treated here as they deserve, and there are many who have no claim either to respect or decency.
Whoever shall review his life, will find that the whole tenor of his conduct has been determined by some accident of no apparent moment.
He that resigns his peace to little casualties, and suffers the course of his life to be interrupted for fortuitous inadvertencies or offences, delivers up himself to the direction of the wind, and loses all that constancy and equanimity which constitutes the chief praise of a wise man.
He that would travel for the entertainment of others should remember that the great object of remark is human life.
Ancient travelers guessed; modern travelers measure.
A small country town is not the place in which one would choose to quarrel with a wife; every human being in such places is a spy.
A fallible being will fail somewhere.
Presumption will be easily corrected; but timidity is a disease of the mind more obstinate and fatal.
Thought is always troublesome to him who lives without his own approbation.
He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.
Tears are often to be found where there is little sorrow, and the deepest sorrow without any tears.
The necessary connexion of representatives with taxes, seems to have sunk deep into many of those minds, that admit sounds, without their meaning.
A man who always talks for fame never can be pleasing. The man who talks to unburthen his mind is the man to delight you.
Suspicion is very often a useless pain.