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
We are inclined to believe those whom we don not know because they have never deceived us.
Those who attain to any excellence commonly spend life in some single pursuit, for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms.
You find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
He that undervalues himself will undervalue others, and he that undervalues others will oppress them.
There are charms made only for distance admiration.
Where there is no hope there can be no endeavor
Friendship is a union of spirits, a marriage of hearts, and the bond there of virtue
If a man were to go by chance at the same time with Burke under a shed, to shun a shower, he would say - 'this is an extraordinary man.'
I gleaned jests at home from obsolete farces.
If what appears little be universally despised, nothing greater can be attained; for all that is great was at first little, and rose to its present bulk by gradual accessions and accumulated labours
We may examine, indeed, but we never can decide, because our faculties are unequal to the subject: we see a little, and form an opinion; we see more, and change it
He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty
He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others
He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind.