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It is in refinement and elegance that the civilized man differs from the savage.

Samuel Johnson

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Samuel Johnson
Age: 75 †
Born: 1709
Born: September 18
Died: 1784
Died: December 13
Biographer
Bookseller
Essayist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Historian
Poet
Politician
Teacher
Translator
Writer
Lichfield
Staffordshire
Dr Johnson
Dr. Johnson
Great Moralist
Differs
Refinement
Savage
Elegance
Savages
Civilized
Men

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Slavery is now nowhere more patiently endured, than in countries once inhabited by the zealots of liberty.
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Life is but short no time can be afforded but for the indulgence of real sorry, or contests upon questions seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry and best, in the next place, to be quickly reconciled.
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I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.
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The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.
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God Himself, sir, does not propose to judge a man until his life is over. Why should you and I?
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None can be pleased without praise, and few can be praised without falsehood.
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The purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside
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Idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry. He that neglects his known duty and real employment naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does any thing but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour.
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To hear complaints with patience, even when complaints are vain, is one of the duties of friendship.
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Unintelligible language is a lantern without a light.
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Sir, I think all Christians, whether Papists or Protestants, agree in the essential articles, and that their differences are trivial, and rather political than religious.
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He that voluntarily continues in ignorance, is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance produces.
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The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence.
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The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.
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Spite and ill-nature are among the most expensive luxuries in life.
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In the condition of men, it frequently happens that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort as in the works of nature, the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.
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Every man who attacks my belief, diminishes in some degree my confidence in it, and therefore makes me uneasy and I am angry with him who makes me uneasy.
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A fellow will hack half a year at a block of marble to make something in stone that hardly resembles a man. The value of statuary is owing to its difficulty. You would not value the finest head cut upon a carrot.
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Year chases year, decay pursues decay, Still drops some joy from with'ring life away New forms arise, and diff'rent views engage
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