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
We are told, that the black bear is innocent; but I should not like to trust myself with him.
Studious to please, yet not ashamed to fail.
If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.
The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside
By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations of petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences, are avoided. An authour cannot obtrude his advice unasked, nor can be often suspected of any malignant intention to insult his readers with his knowledge or his wit. Yet so prevalent is the habit of comparing ourselves with others, while they remain within the reach of our passions, that books are seldom read with complete impartiality, but by those from whom the writer is placed at such a distance that his life or death is indifferent.
A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but, one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
A man of genius has been seldom ruined but by himself.
It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.
Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal.
If useless thoughts could be expelled from the mind, all the valuable parts of our knowledge would more frequently recur.
I would injure no man, and should provoke no resentment. I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received.
Friendship may well deserve the sacrifice of pleasure, though not of conscience.
Expectation improperly indulged in must end in disappointment.
Excise: A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is paid.