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
The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne.
Money and time are the heaviest burdens of life, and... the unhappiest of all mortals are those who have more of either than they know how to use.
The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.
Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.
Between falsehood and useless truth there is little difference. As gold which he cannot spend will make no man rich, so knowledge which cannot apply will make no man wise.
Every man is rich or poor according to the proportion between his desires and his enjoyments.
Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
A man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Love is only one of many passions.
Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Words are but the signs of ideas.
Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.
Wine gives a man nothing... it only puts in motion what had been locked up in frost.
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.