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
compared despised easy enjoy falsehoods hardened hear home listen mind opinion others power rather seeing seldom sitting state supported supposed talk temporary winning worth
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.
society owing opinion
In civilized society we all depend upon each other, and our happiness is very much owing to the good opinion of mankind.
thinking long public-opinion
About things on which the public thinks long it commonly attains to think right.
men advice opinion
No man tells his opinion so freely as when he imagines it received with implicit veneration.
letters bows opinion
A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation - a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.
practice speech opinion
As any custom is disused, the words that expressed it must perish with it; as any opinion grows popular, it will innovate speech in the same proportion as it alters practice.
prejudice facts opinion
Prejudice is a great time-saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts. Prejudice not being founded on reason cannot be removed by argument.
opinion reason offended
We have less reason to be surprised or offended when we find others differ from us in opinion, because we very often differ from ourselves.
opinion bounty values
Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed.
memorial opinion improvement
Of those that spin out trifles and die without a memorial, many flatter themselves with high opinions of their own importance, and imagine that they are every day adding some improvement to human life.
admit attention cause complaints evils impatience might properly remove time
In all evils which admit a remedy, impatience should be avoided, because it wastes that time and attention in complaints which, if properly applied, might remove the cause
age court fortuitous idle kingdoms necessity nor past repulsed scorned travelling wild
The age being now past of vagrant excursion and fortuitous hostility, he was under the necessity of travelling from court to court, scorned and repulsed as a wild projector, an idle promiser of kingdoms in the clouds; nor has any part of the world y
adversity bitter break build happen heart intended wrong
Things don't go wrong and break your heart so you can become bitter and give up. They happen to break you down and build you up so you can be all that you were intended to be.
head left pun punished puny shed
If I were punished for every pun I shed, there would not be left a puny shed of my punnish head