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
Wickedness is always easier than virtue, for it takes a short cut to everything.
Friendship is a union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond there of virtue
Every man prefers virtue, when there is not some strong incitement to transgress its precepts.
Virtue is too often merely local.
The highest panegyric, therefore, that private virtue can receive, is the praise of servants.
It is to be steadily inculcated, that virtue is the highest proof of understanding, and the only solid basis of greatness.
To set the mind above the appetites is the end of abstinence, which if not a virtue, is the groundwork of a virtue.
No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous.
His virtues walked their narrow round, Nor made a pause, nor left a void; And sure the Eternal Master found The single talent well employed.
He who would govern his actions by the laws of virtue must regulate his thoughts by those of reason.
Glory, the casual gift of thoughtless crowds! Glory, the bribe of avaricious virtue!
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford
Dublin, though a place much worse than London, is not so bad as Iceland.
Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize