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
Samuel Johnson quotes about
agree essential political rather religious whether
For my part, Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious
accidents concur content greatest indeed mankind qualities requisite rise supply themselves
So many qualities are indeed requisite to the possibility of friendship, and so many accidents must concur to its rise and its continuance, that the greatest part of mankind content themselves without it, and supply its place as they can, with intere
birds nest singing
Sir, we are a nest of singing birds
coward-and-cowardice drives fellow hate laziness sit whom
I hate a fellow whom pride, or cowardice, or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl; let him come out as I do, and bark.
close fatigue idleness reading therefore whose wish writers
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention; and the world therefore swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read
cannot prejudice reason
Prejudice not being funded on reason cannot be removed by argument.
conscious expected man seen
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority, from his not having seen what it is expected a man should see
expected sought tools whose workman
Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for ever to be sought
compared despised easy enjoy falsehoods hardened hear home listen mind opinion others power rather seeing seldom sitting state supported supposed talk temporary winning worth
It is easy to talk of sitting at home contented, when others are seeing or making shows. But not to have been where it is supposed, and seldom supposed falsely, that all would go if they could; to be able to say nothing when everyone is talking; to have no opinion when everyone is judging; to hear exclamations of rapture without power to depress; to listen to falsehoods without right to contradict, is, after all, a state of temporary inferiority, in which the mind is rather hardened by stubbornness, than supported by fortitude. If the world be worth winning let us enjoy it, if it is to be despised let us despise it by conviction. But the world is not to be despised but as it is compared with something better.
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
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.
allowing cannot degree delay escaped finally folly general greater less mind ourselves prevail spite weaknesses
The folly of allowing ourselves to delay what we know cannot be finally escaped is one of the general weaknesses which, in spite of the instruction of moralists, and the remonstrance of reason, prevail to a greater or less degree in every mind
life man sat telling
That man (Lord Lyttelton) sat down to write a book, to tell the world what the world had all his life been telling him
bad best hate humankind
I hate mankind, for I think of myself as one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.