Samuel Johnson
People note British writer and lexicographer Samuel Johnson, known as "Doctor Johnson," for his
Dictionary of the English Language
(1755), for
Lives of the Poets
(1781), and for his series of essays, published under the titles
The Rambler
(1752) and
The Idler
(1758).
Beginning as a journalist on Grub street, this English author made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, and editor. People described Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history." James Boswell subjected him to
Life of Samuel Johnson
, one of the most celebrated biographies in English. This biography alongside other biographies, documented behavior and mannerisms of Johnson in such detail that they informed the posthumous diagnosis of Tourette syndrome (TS), a condition unknown to 18th-century physicians. He presented a tall and robust figure, but his odd gestures and tics confused some persons on their first encounters.
Johnson attended Pembroke college, Oxford for a year before his lack of funds compelled him to leave. After working as a teacher, he moved to London, where he began to write essays for The Gentleman's Magazine. His early works include the biography
The Life of Richard Savage
and the poem "
The Vanity of Human Wishes
." Christian morality permeated works of Johnson, a devout and compassionate man. He, a conservative Anglican, nevertheless respected persons of other denominations that demonstrated a commitment to teachings of Christ.
After nine years of work, people in 1755 published his preeminent Dictionary of the English Language, bringing him popularity and success until the completion of the
Oxford English Dictionary
in 1905, a century and a half later. In the following years, he published essays, an influential annotated edition of plays of William Shakespeare, and the well-read novel
Rasselas
. In 1763, he befriended James Boswell, with whom he later travelled to Scotland;
A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
, travel narrative of Johnson, described the journey. Towards the end of his life, he produced the massive and influential
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets
, which includes biographies and evaluations of 17th- and 18th-century poets.
After a series of illnesses, Johnson died on the evening; people buried his body in Westminster abbey. In the years following death, people began to recognize a lasting effect of Samuel Johnson on literary criticism even as the only great critic of English literature.
“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings”
“Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.”
“The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.”
“As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man upon easier terms than I was formerly. ”
“There will always be a part, and always a very large part of every community, that have no care but for themselves, and whose care for themselves reaches little further than impatience of immediate pain, and eagerness for the nearest good.”
“Every state of society is as luxurious as it can be. Men always take the best they can get. ”
“Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult.”
“Hell is paved with good intentions.”
“Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”
“Love is the wisdom of the fool and the folly of the wise.”
“In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.”
“If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary be not idle.”
“Every man is, or hopes to be, an idler”
“Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine, why should you number up my cups of tea?”
“men do not suspect faults which they do not commit”
“Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”
“The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.”
“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock is a scoundrel.”
“Life is not long, and too much of it must not pass in idle deliberation how it shall be spent.”
“The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing.”
“The Church does not superstitiously observe days, merely as days, but as memorials of important facts. Christmas might be kept as well upon one day of the year as another; but there should be a stated day for commemorating the birth of our Saviour, because there is danger that what may be done on any day, will be neglected. ”
“I look upon it that a man who does not mind his stomach would hardly mind anything else.”
“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.”
“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.”
“There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”
“The fountain of content must spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief he proposes to remove.”
“Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.”
“Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.”
“Courage is reckoned the greatest of all virtues; because, unless a man has that virtue, he has no security for preserving any other.”
“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
“The young man, who intends no ill,Believes that none is intended, and thereforeActs with openness and candor: but his father, having suffered the injuries of fraud, is impelled to suspect, and too often allured to practice 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.”
“Prosperity is too apt to prevent us from examining our conduct; but adversity leads us to think properly of our state, and so is most beneficial to us.”
“Nature has given woman so much power that the law cannot afford to give her more.”
“If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself alone. A man should keep his friendships in constant repair.”
“You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument.”
“Nothing [...] will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome.”
“I do not care to speak ill of a man behind his back, but I believe he is an attorney.”
“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”
“Being in a ship is like being in jail, with the chance of being drowned.”
“A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.”
“Angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.”
“A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.”
“The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar and familiar things new.”
“The next best thing to knowing something is knowing where to find it.”
“Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
“That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.”
“Persahabatan harus selalu harus dipupuk.”
“Justice is my being allowed to do whatever I like. Injustice is whatever prevents my doing so.”