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
men do not suspect faults which they do not commit
Happiness," said he, "must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.
I have already enjoyed too much; give me something to desire.
Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.
If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.
While grief is fresh, every attempt to divert only irritates. You must wait till it be digested, and then amusement will dissipate the remains of it.
Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.
You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.
I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.
In a man’s letters his soul lies naked.
No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.