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
advertising art cannot due easy masters moral near ought perfection propose public question trade whether
The trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement. But as every art ought to be exercised in due subordination to the public good, I cannot but propose it as a moral question to these masters of the public ear, whether they do not sometimes play too wantonly with our passions.
perfection humanity religion
Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity.
perfection people advice
The desire of advising has a very extensive prevalence; and, since advice cannot be given but to those that will hear it, a patient listener is necessary to the accommodation of all those who desire to be confirmed in the opinion of their own wisdom: a patient listener, however, is not always to be had; the present age, whatever age is present, is so vitiated and disordered, that young people are readier to talk than to attend, and good counsel is only thrown away upon those who are full of their own perfections.
eye perfection may
It is reasonable to have perfection in our eye that we may always advance toward it, though we know it can never be reached.
women perfection honor
If we require more perfection from women than from ourselves, it is doing them honor.
writing ideas perfection
It is the condition of our present state to see more than we can attain; the exactest vigilance and caution can never maintain a single day of unmingled innocence... It is, however, necessary for the idea of perfection to be proposed, that we may have some object to which our endeavours are to be directed; and he that is most deficient in the duties of life makes some atonement for his faults if he warns others against his own failings, and hinders, by the salubrity of his admonitions, the contagion of his example.
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
behind excite silk stockings white
I'll come no more behind your scenes, David; for the silk stockings and white bosoms of your actresses excite my amorous propensities
sovereign
It was not for me to bandy civilities with my Sovereign
discuss forgets kings man nations original questions rights sink
No man forgets his original trade: the rights of nations and of kings sink into questions of grammar, if grammarians discuss them
expected sought tools whose workman
Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for ever to be sought