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
He who would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry the wealth of the Indies with him.
Since every man is obliged to promote happiness and virtue, he should be careful not to mislead unwary minds, by appearing to set too high a value upon things by which no real excellence is conferred.
Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.
If we will have the kindness of others, we must endure their follies.
Sir, you must not neglect doing a thing immediately good from fear of remote evil; -from fear of its being abused.
He that accepts protection, stipulates obedience.
There is less flogging in our great schools than formerly-but then less is learned there; so what the boys get at one end they lose at the other.
Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue, that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.
Change is not made without inconvenience.
Advertisements are now so numerous that they are very negligently perused
You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly to it.
So different are the colors of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past; and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.
When I was as you are now, towering in the confidence of twenty-one, little did I suspect that I should be at forty-nine, what I now am.