Books Quotes by Samuel Johnson

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

— Samuel Johnson

Women can spin very well; but they cannot make a good book of cookery.

— Samuel Johnson

Those authors are to be read at schools that supply most axioms of prudence.

— Samuel Johnson

The chief glory of every people arises from its authors.

— Samuel Johnson

The best part of every author is in general to be found in his book, I assure you.

— Samuel Johnson

I respect Millar: he has raised the price of literature

— Samuel Johnson

The richest author that ever grazed the common of literature.

— Samuel Johnson

There is no book so poor that it would not be a prodigy if wholly made by a single man.

— Samuel Johnson

In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as…

— Samuel Johnson

The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a…

— Samuel Johnson

Lectures were once useful; but now when all can read, and books are so numerous, lectures are unnecessary.

— Samuel Johnson

To read, write, and converse in due proportions, is, therefore, the business of a man of letters.

— Samuel Johnson

If a man begins to read in the middle of a book, and feels an inclination to go on, let him not…

— Samuel Johnson

A transition from an author's book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city.

— Samuel Johnson

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

— Samuel Johnson

Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are…

— Samuel Johnson

He that writes may be considered as a kind of general challenger, whom every one has a right to attack; since he…

— Samuel Johnson

The authors that in any nation last from age to age are very few, because there are very few that have any…

— Samuel Johnson

There is ... scarcely any species of writing of which we can tell what is its essence, and what are its constituents;…

— Samuel Johnson

The most heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence together; nature and art are ransacked for illustrations, comparisons, and allusions; their learning instructs,…

— Samuel Johnson

We owe few of the rules of writing to the acuteness of critics, who have generally no other merit than that, having…

— Samuel Johnson

Exactness is first obtained, and afterwards elegance. But diction, merely vocal, is always in its childhood. As no man leaves his eloquence…

— Samuel Johnson

A man finds in the productions of nature an inexhaustible stock of material on which he can employ himself, without any temptations…

— Samuel Johnson

Few of those who fill the world with books, have any pretensions to the hope either of pleasing or instructing. They have…

— Samuel Johnson

The diversion of baiting an author has the sanction of all ages and nations, and is more lawful than the sport of…

— Samuel Johnson

Among those whose reputation is exhausted in a short time by its own luxuriance are the writers who take advantage of present…

— Samuel Johnson

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard…

— Samuel Johnson

Works of imagination excel by their allurement and delight; by their power of attracting and detaining the attention. That book is good…

— Samuel Johnson

Knowledge is praised and desired by multitudes whom her charms could never rouse from the couch of sloth; whom the faintest invitation…

— Samuel Johnson

“The chief advantage which these fictions have over real life is, that their authors are at liberty, though not to invent, yet…

— Samuel Johnson

When a language begins to teem with books, it is tending to refinement; as those who undertake to teach others must have…

— Samuel Johnson

By the consultation of books, whether of dead or living authors, many temptations of petulance and opposition, which occur in oral conferences,…

— Samuel Johnson

What is read twice is usually remembered more than what is once written.

— Samuel Johnson

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

— Samuel Johnson

What is twice read is commonly better remembered that what is transcribed.

— Samuel Johnson

Those authors who would find many readers, must endeavour to please while they instruct.

— Samuel Johnson

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

— Samuel Johnson

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay an author.

— Samuel Johnson

“A books should teach us to enjoy life, or to endure it.”

— Samuel Johnson

“Every author does not write for every reader”

— Samuel Johnson