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
Dublin, though a place much worse than London, is not so bad as Iceland.
Sorrow is the rust of the soul and activity will cleanse and brighten it.
To us, who are regaled every morning and evening with intelligence, and are supplied from day to day with materials for conversation, it is difficult to conceive how man can consist without a newspaper, or to what entertainment companies can assemble
Of the innumerable authors whose performances are thus treasured up in magnificent obscurity (in a library), most are forgotten, because they never deserved to be remembered
Fear is implanted in us as a preservative from evil; but its duty, like that of other passions, is not to overbear reason, but to assist it. It should not be suffered to tyrannize
Always set high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you.
A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
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
This mournful truth is ev'rywhere confess'd,- Slow rises worth by poverty depress'd
Your manuscript is both good and original; but the parts that are good are not original, and the parts that are original are not good.
The usual fortune for complaint is to excite contempt more than pity
A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing
No two men can be half an hour together but one shall acquire an evident superiority over the other.
No man will be found in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannize him and thus force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of sober probability