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
There are charms made only for distance admiration.
Where there is no hope there can be no endeavor
You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
We are inclined to believe those whom we don not know because they have never deceived us.
Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.
A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.
This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,- Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd
A wicked fellow is the most pious when he takes to it. He'll beat you all at piety.
At seventy-seven it is time to be earnest.
The usual fortune for complaint is to excite contempt more than pity