Samuel Johnson

1709–1784 · English lexicographer, critic & essayist

Samuel Johnson compiled A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) largely single-handed, and closed his career with Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–81), still one of the sharpest works of criticism in English. He was also the most quoted talker of his century — which is precisely the problem: because Boswell and a dozen lesser anecdotists wrote down what he said, any crisp eighteenth-century aphorism can be floated under his name and sound right. He did write something close to this line's sense in his Life of Pope: “but what is easy is seldom excellent.”

Traced to source

7 quotes we’ve traced to Samuel Johnson

“A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair”

Verified

“A wise man will make haste to forgive, because he knows the true value of time, and will not suffer it to pass away in unnecessary pain”

Verified

“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people”

Verified

“Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance”

Verified

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

Verified

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”

Verified

“What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure”

Attributed

Not actually Samuel Johnson

Often misattributed to Samuel Johnson

Famous lines widely pinned on Samuel Johnson that we’ve traced to someone else.

“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good”

actually Malcolm Forbes / the Ann Landers columns

“You Don't Have to Know Everything. You Just Have to Know Where to Find It”

actually John Brunner

Did they really say it?

Thought Samuel Johnson said something else?

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