8 Samuel Johnson Quotes on Literature

Samuel Johnson quotes on literature

5. The reciprocal civility of authors is one of the most risible scenes in the farce of life.

30. When learning's triumph o'er her barb'rous foes First reared the stage, immortal Shakespeare rose; Each change of many-colored life he drew, Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new: Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, And panting Time toiled after him in vain.

60. But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in few words.

66. GRUBSTREET - The name of a street near Moorsfield, London, much inhabited by writers of small histories, dictionaries, and temporary poems.

93. Those writers who lay on the watch for novelty, could have little hope of greatness; for great things cannot have escaped former observation.

132. Shakspeare never has six lines together without a fault. Perhaps you may find seven: but this does not refute my general assertion.

152. I [Boswell] was somewhat disappointed in finding that the edition of The English Poets, for which he was to write Prefaces and Lives, was not an undertaking directed by him: but that he was to furnish a Preface and Life to any poet the booksellers pleased. I asked him if he would do this to any dunce's works, if they should ask him. JOHNSON: 'Yes, Sir, and say he was a dunce.'

182. Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.