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
What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence.
The two offices of memory are collection and distribution.
He who praises everybody, praises nobody.
He who does not mind his belly, will hardly mind anything else.
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
A man seldom thinks with more earnestness of anything than he does of his dinner.
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
No money is better spent than what is laid out for domestic satisfaction.
It is better to live rich than to die rich.
The world is like a grand staircase, some are going up and some are going down.
No man was ever great by imitation.
Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.
I had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world.