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
All theory is against freedom of the will; all experience for it.
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 the other.
I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.
You can't be in politics unless you can walk in a room and know in a minute who's for you and who's against you.
There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern... No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.
In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
To embarrass justice by a multiplicity of laws, or to hazard it by confidence in judges, are the opposite rocks on which all civil institutions have been wrecked, and between which legislative wisdom has never yet found an open passage
To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.
What we ever hope to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.
Well, (said he), we had a good talk. BOSWELL: Yes, Sir, you tossed and gored several persons.
If one party resolves to demand what the other resolves to refuse, the dispute can be determined only by arbitration; and between powers who have no common superior, there is no other arbitrator than the sword
Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliate the other's failings because they are his own.
Friendship is a union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond there of virtue
If a man were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed, to shun a shower, he would say - 'this is an extraordinary man.'