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
The arguments for purity of life fail of their due influence, not because they have been considered and confuted, but because they have been passed over without consideration.
There is a certain race of men that either imagine it their duty, or make it their amusement, to hinder the reception of every work of learning or genius, who stand as sentinels in the avenues of fame, and value themselves upon giving Ignorance and Envy the first notice of a prey.
Shakespeare never had six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven, but this does not refute my general assertion.
We are perpetually moralists, but we are geometricians only by chance. Our intercourse with intellectual nature is necessary; our speculations upon matter are voluntary, and at leisure.
To make dictionaries is dull work.
His most frequent ailment was the headache which he used to relieve by inhaling the steam of coffee.
The expense is damnable, the position is ridiculous, and the pleasure fleeting.
It is not easy to surround life with any circumstances in which youth will not be delightful.
Fears of the brave and follies of the wise.
Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed.
An exotic and irrational entertainment, which has been always combated, and always has prevailed.
The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.
[The poet] must write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations, as a being superior to time and place.
A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.