Quotes About Samuel Johnson

This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a Lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among Lords.

I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; one, that I have lost all the names, the other, that I have spent all the money.

Games are good or bad as to their nature; all may be perverted.

To hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy.

In 1759, the great lexicographer Dr Samuel Johnson wrote: 'Advertisements are now so numerous they are very negligently perused.' An opinion many people express to this day, without realizing its centuries-old ancestry.

Dr. (Samuel) Johnson said patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

A mere literary man is a dull man; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish man; but when literature and commerce are united, they make a respectable man.

If we estimate dignity by immediate usefulness, agriculture is undoubtedly the first and noblest science.

Chase was a tall, ungainly man with a resemblance to Dr. Samuel Johnson and a face so broad and ruddy that he was dubbed "Bacon Face.

I had, in college, a professor called Walter Jackson Bate, and he taught a course called The Age of Johnson. It's about Samuel Johnson and his period, 18th-century British writing. So we all got to endure Samuel Johnson, and Boswell's 'Life of Johnson' is now my favorite book. I read it all the time I can; it's great for going to sleep.

Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness. ( On the Bravery of the English Common Soldiers )

Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning than the disposition of vulgar minds to ridicule and vilify what they cannot comprehend.

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

His comedy pleases by the thoughts and the language, and his tragedy for the greater part by incident and action. His tragedy seems to be skill, his comedy to be instinct.

Imitations produce pain or pleasure, not because they are mistaken for realities, but because they bring realities to mind.

As soon as I enter the door of a tavern, I experience oblivion of care, and a freedom from solicitude. There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.

AMURCOSITY  (AMURCO'SITY)   n.s.[amurca, Lat.]The quality of lees or mother of any thing.

AC  (AC) AK, or AKE. Being initials in the names of places, as  Acton, signify an oak, from the Saxon ac, an oak. Gibson's Camden.

His comprehension is vast, his memory capacious and retentive, his discourse is methodical, and his expression clear.

ANSWER-JOBBER  (A'NSWER-JOBBER)   n.s.[from answer and jobber.]He that makes a trade of writing answers. What disgusts me from having any thing to do with answer-jobbers, is, that they have no conscience.Swift.

ADUNCITY  (ADU'NCITY)   n.s.[aduncitas, Lat.]Crookedness; flexure inwards; hookedness. There can be no question, but the aduncity of the pounces, and beaks of the hawks, is the cause of the great and habitual immorality of those animals.Arbuthnot and Pope'sMart. Scrib.

sheers.Garth'sDispensat.2. A reproachful name for a dark complexion. Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench; Dido a dowdy; Cleopatra a gipsy; Helen and Hero hildings and harlots.Shakespeare'sRomeo and Juliet.3. A

To ABATE [only in 1755 edition] (ABATE)   [in horsemanship.] A horse is said to abate or take down his curvets; when working upon curvets, he puts his two hind-legs to the ground both at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times.Dict.