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Who really said it

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

Written by Samuel Johnson 1709–1784 · English writer, lexicographer & moralist
Verified Free to reuse

Johnson wrote this in a letter of 8 June 1762, gently declining a lady’s request that he solicit the Archbishop of Canterbury’s patronage for her son. James Boswell printed the letter in his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), where the exact wording is confirmed. It is often mis-cited to The Idler No. 58, which carries a similar thought in different words.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords” Samuel Johnson, letter of 8 June 1762 (in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791)

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Provenance

The source

Source
Private letter, 8 June 1762
First printed in
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)
Recorded by
James Boswell
Often mis-cited as
The Idler No. 58 (different wording)

Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords: but, like all other pleasures immoderately enjoyed, the excesses of hope must be expiated by pain; and expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment.

From Johnson’s letter of 8 June 1762, declining to press the Archbishop of Canterbury on a stranger’s behalf, as printed by Boswell.

Boswell's Life of Johnson, the year 1762

How we know

Public domain

Johnson wrote these words in 1762 and they were first published in Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson in 1791 — both long before 1931, so the text is in the public domain in the United States.

Fact-check

What people get wrong

The line is authentically Johnson’s — the muddle is over where it comes from and, occasionally, which Johnson.

Samuel Johnson Right author, wrong work

Johnson voiced a kindred thought in The Idler No. 58 ↗ (26 May 1759): “hope itself is happiness.” But the exact popular wording — “a species of happiness… the chief happiness which this world affords” — is from his 1762 letter, not the essay.

William Samuel Johnson (1727–1819) Wrong person

At least one major quote database files the line under the American statesman William Samuel Johnson rather than the English writer Samuel Johnson — a name-collision error; the words are the lexicographer’s.

The genuine source is Johnson’s letter of 8 June 1762, preserved in Boswell’s Life of Johnson ↗.

Context

The context

Johnson wrote the line not as an aphorism but inside a courteous refusal. A lady had asked him to lobby the Archbishop of Canterbury to get her son into university; Johnson, unwilling to trade on influence he thought improper, delayed his reply precisely because he was reluctant to kill her hope.

His reflection turns that hesitation into a small meditation: hope is a real pleasure, perhaps the greatest life offers — which is exactly why hope indulged past reason ends in pain. The sting the modern feel-good clipping omits is the second half: “expectations improperly indulged, must end in disappointment.”

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

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Hope Happiness

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Boswell's Life of Johnson, 1762 (Jack Lynch ed.)jacklynch.net

Primary transcription of Boswell's chapter containing the 8 June 1762 letter and the exact quotation.
Samuel Johnson — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced section citing the line to Johnson's letter of 8 June 1762.
The Idler No. 58: Expectations of pleasure frustratedjohnsonessays.com

The essay often confused with the quote; its wording is 'hope itself is happiness', not the letter's phrasing.
Life of Johnson, Vol. 1 (1709–1765) — Project Gutenberggutenberg.org

Full public-domain text of Boswell's biography, Volume I (Birkbeck Hill ed.), which covers the year 1762 and contains the 8 June 1762 letter and the quotation.
Samuel Johnson — Encyclopaedia Britannicabritannica.com

Biographical background on Johnson, the author of the line.

The true author

About Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

1709–1784 · English writer, lexicographer & moralist

Samuel Johnson — “Dr Johnson” — was the dominant English man of letters of the 18th century: poet, essayist, critic, and compiler of the landmark A Dictionary of the English Language (1755). His moral reflections, gathered in The Rambler and The Idler and in his letters, made him one of the most quoted writers in English, a fame cemented by James Boswell’s celebrated biography.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London: Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791), recording Johnson's letter of 8 June 1762.

MLA (9th ed.)

Boswell, James. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, 1791.

APA (7th ed.)

Boswell, J. (1791). The life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly.

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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Hope is itself a species of happiness, and, perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/hope-is-itself-a-species-of-happiness-and-perhaps-the-chief

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