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
Nothing can be truly great which is not right.
There are charms made only for distance admiration.
Where there is no hope there can be no endeavor
To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.
There are minds which easily sink into submission, that look on grandeur with undistinguishing reverence, and discover no defect where there is elevation of rank and affluence of riches
Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.
Marriage, Sir, is much more necessary to a man than to a woman; for he is much less able to supply himself with domestick comforts
It is better that some should be unhappy than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.
It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one's mouth and remove all doubt.
It is common for controversists, in the heat of disputation, to add one position to another till they reach the extremities of knowledge, where truth and falsehood lose their distinction
It is difficult to conjecture, from the conduct of him whom we see in a low condition, how he would act if wealth and power were put into his hands
It is easy to talk of sitting at home contented, when others are seeing or making shows. But not to have been where it is supposed, and seldom supposed falsely, that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing when everyone is talking; to have no opinion when everyone is judging; to hear exclamations of rapture without power to depress; to listen to falsehoods without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness, than supported by fortitude. If the world be worth winning let us enjoy it, if it is to be despised let us despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better.
Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.