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Quote by Samuel Johnson

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The poetical works of Samuel Johnson: collated with the best editions

This volume presents the complete poetical writings of Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth-century English writer, critic, and lexicographer. The edition has been prepared through collation with established authoritative editions, indicating an editorial effort to establish accurate texts. Johnson's poetry, though less celebrated than his prose works such as his Dictionary of the English Language or his Lives of the Poets, includes compositions in various forms including Latin verse, English lyrics, and the tragedy Irene. The collection reflects the neoclassical style prevalent during Johnson's lifetime, characterized by formal structures, moral themes, and learned allusions. The editorial approach of collating with best editions suggests attention to textual accuracy and bibliographic scholarship, typical of nineteenth-century publishing practices for canonical authors. more

Author

Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson was an English writer, poet, and lexicographer, renowned for his comprehensive English dictionary, 'A Dictionary of the English Language', published in 1755. His distinctive writing style and wit have cemented his place as a significant figure in the history of English literature. more

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“In civilized society external advantages make us more respected. A man with a good coat upon his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one. You may analyze this and say, What is there in it? But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.”

“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.”

“Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant, or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and far from my friends be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Ionia.”