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.
“What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.”
“We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know because they have never deceived us.”
“The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken.”
“He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.”
“In a man’s letters his soul lies naked.”
“To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.”
“A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything.”
“No weakness of the human mind has more frequently incurred animadversion, than the negligence with which men overlook their own faults, however flagrant, and the easiness with which they pardon them, however frequently repeated.”
“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
“Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.”
“Better to save a citizen than to kill an enemy.”
“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it.”
“Nothing flatters a man as much as the happiness of his wife; he is always proud of himself as the source of it.”
“Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others... This is one of the disadvantages of wine, it makes a man mistake words for thoughts.”
“We never do anything consciously for the last time without sadness of heart.”
“Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.”
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”
“In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness."(On the Bravery of the English Common Soldiers)”
“Men are generally idle, and ready to satisfy themselves, and intimidate the industry of others, by calling that impossible which is only difficult.”
“I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.”
“It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.”
“I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.”
“Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.”
“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”
“MARRY IN HASTE, REPENT AT LEISURE.”
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
“It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”
“Sir, there is nothing too little for so little creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.”
“To keep your secret is wisdom, but to expect others to keep it is folly.”
“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant [excessive thought]. You may talk as other people do: you may say to a man, "Sir, I am your most humble servant." You are not his most humble servant. You may say, "These are bad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times." You don't mind the times ... You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society; but don't think foolishly.”
“Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; something is hourly lost, and something acquired... Do not suffer life to stagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourself again to the current of the world.”
“Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find?”