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
Attack is the reaction. I never think I have hit hard unless it rebounds.
As a man advances in life he gets what is better than admiration -judgement to estimate things at their own value.
That observation which is called knowledge of the world will be found much more frequently to make men cunning than good.
Virtue is too often merely local.
The mind is refrigerated by interruption; the thoughts are diverted from the principle subject; the reader is weary, he suspects not why; and at last throws away the book, which he has too diligently studied.
The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.
Some people wave their dogmatic thinking until their own reason is entangled.
Treating your adversary with respect is giving him an advantage to which he is not entitled.
Attention and respect give pleasure, however late, or however useless. But they are not useless, when they are late, it is reasonable to rejoice, as the day declines, to find that it has been spent with the approbation of mankind.
A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.
Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rule of composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation; rather prevents loss than procures advantage; and often miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honor.
The real satisfaction which praise can afford, is when what is repeated aloud agrees with the whispers of conscience, by showing us that we have not endeavored to deserve well in vain.