The quotations of

Samuel Johnson

English writer and lexicographer

1709–1784

99 quotes, most often on Clever Jabs, Writing and Knowledge. Part of the Writers collection.

No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (5 April 1776) p. 302
- Writing
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 106 (23 March 1751)
- Fame
- Writing
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (16 August 1773)
- Writing
Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I (1743)
- Clever Jabs
- Writing
I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those arts by which a big book is made.
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (16 August 1773)
- Writing
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.
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (26 March 1779)
- Fame
- Writing
In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81), “Pope”, on The Rape of the Lock
- Writing
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
- Writing
LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
- Comedy
- Writing

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