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
Pity is not natural to man. Children always are cruel. Savages are always cruel.
A man had rather have a hundred lies told of him than one truth which he does not wish should be told.
Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
There is no being so poor and so contemptible, who does not think there is somebody still poorer, and still more contemptible.
It is as foolish to make experiments upon the constancy of a friend, as upon the chastity of a wife.
I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.
He that has too much to do will do something wrong.
It very seldom happens to a man that his business is his pleasure.
A book should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.
Apologies are seldom of any use.
Every man's affairs, however little, are important to himself.
Lawful and settled authority is very seldom resisted when it is well employed.
A horse that can count to ten is a remarkable horse, not a remarkable mathematician.