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
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.
I found you essay to be good and original. However, the part that was original was not good and the part that was good was not original.
To do nothing is in everyone's power.
No writer can be fully convicted of imitation except there is a concurrence of more resemblance than can be imagined to have happened by chance; as where the same ideas are conjoined without any natural series or necessary coherence, or where not only the thought but the words are copied.
From thee, great God, we spring, to thee we tend,- Path, motive, guide, original, and end.
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.