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
No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them
His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.
Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries, but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.
Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized nations, proceeds often from that change of manners which opulence has produced. Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries; but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.
Languages are the pedigree of nations.
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