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
If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, sir, should keep his friendship in a constant repair.
Where grief is fresh, any attempt to divert it only irritates.
When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is, how much has been escaped.
Actions are visible, though motives are secret.
It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentionally lying that there is so much falsehood in the world.
To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.
Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
Courage is the greatest of all virtues, because if you haven't courage, you may not have an opportunity to use any of the others.
Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.
The return of my birthday, if I remember it, fills me with thoughts which it seems to be the general care of humanity to escape.
Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.
We love to expect, and when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting.
The imaginations excited by the view of an unknown and untravelled wilderness are not such as arise in the artificial solitude of parks and gardens... The phantoms which haunt a desert are want, and misery, and danger; the evils of dereliction rush upon the thoughts; man is made unwillingly acquainted with his own weakness, and meditation shows him only how little he can sustain, and how little he can perform.
1. Turn all care out of your head as soon as you mount the chaise. 2. Do not think about frugality: your health is worth more than it can cost. 3. Do not continue any day's journey to fatigue. 4. Take now and then a day's rest. 5. Get a smart seasickness if you can. 6. Cast away all anxiety, and keep your mind easy. This last direction is the principal; with an unquiet mind neither exercise, nor diet, nor physic can be of much use.