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
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.
In a man’s letters his soul lies naked.
No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.
We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.
It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.
We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.
There are some sluggish men who are improved by drinking; as there are fruits that are not good until they are rotten.
Paradise Lost is a book that, once put down, is very hard to pick up again.
Leisure and curiosity might soon make great advances in useful knowledge, were they not diverted by minute emulation and laborious trifles.
Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed.