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
Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree. We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.
I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
One cause, which is not always observed, of the insufficiency of riches, is that they very seldom make their owner rich.
There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, toil, envy, want, and patron.
Virtue is too often merely local.
A horse that can count to ten is a remarkable horse, not a remarkable mathematician.
Apologies are seldom of any use.
I live in the crowd of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.
Every man wishes to be wise, and they who cannot be wise are almost always cunning.
We ought not to raise expectations which it is not in our power to satisfy.-It is more pleasing to see smoke brightening into flame, than flame sinking into smoke.
Life protracted is protracted woe.
With what hope can we endeavor to persuade the ladies that the time spent at the toilet is lost in vanity.
Keeping accounts, sir, is of no use when a man is spending his own money, and has nobody to whom he is to account. You won't eat less beef today because you have written down what it cost yesterday.
Politeness is fictitious benevolence.