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
Sir, you are giving a reason for it, but that will not make it right
Sir, we are a nest of singing birds
Sir, they are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for anything we allow them short of hanging.
Sir, that all who are happy, are equally happy, is not true. A peasant and a philosopher may be equally satisfied, but not equally happy. Happiness consists in the multiplicity of agreeable consciousness.
Sir, it is burning a farthing candle at Dover, to shew a light at Calais
Sir, I have two cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; - one, that I have lost all the names, - the other, that I have spent all the money
Sir, he was dull in company, dull in his closet, dull everywhere. He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great.
Sir, a man may be so much of everything, that he is nothing of anything.
Men know that women are an over-match for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.
Man is not weak; knowledge is more than equivalent to force.
Let no man rashly determine, that his unwillingness to be pleased is a proof of understanding, unless his superiority appears from less doubtful evidence; for though peevishness may sometimes justly boast its descent from learning or from wit, it is
Lexicographer. A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Let him who desires to see others happy, make haste to give while his gift can be enjoyed, and remember that every moment of delay takes away something from the value of his benefaction
Many things difficult in design prove easy in performance.