Books Quote by Samuel Johnson

Could he with reason murmur at his case, Himself sole author of his own disgrace?

— William Cowper

“A bad composition carries its own punishment—contempt and ridicule; a good one excites envy and entails upon its author a thousand mortifications; he finds…

— Matthew Gregory Lewis

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

— Samuel Johnson

“But in those whom no necessity forces to turn Author, who merely write for fame, and have full leisure to polish their compositions, faults…

— Matthew Lewis

The writer has a grudge against society, which he documents with accounts of unsatisfying sex, unrealized ambition, unmitigated loneliness, and a sense of local…

— Renata Adler

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

— Samuel Johnson

“Many authors, as Hanck in particular had noted, were basically little people, spiritually shriveled, atrophied and care-worn personalities. Petty. Vulnerable and frightened. They needed…

— Klas Ostergren

“What did one see if one looked in any depth into the world of this writer's fiction? Elegant self-control concealing from the world's eyes…

— Thomas Mann

“Sometimes a writer is punished by misunderstanding from what he had written...”

— Navnath Godse

“It is a misfortune to be in the presence of a writer, even a failed writer, to be seen by him, be his passing…

— Manu Joseph

If an author be supposed to involve his thoughts in voluntary obscurity, and to obstruct, by unnecessary difficulties, a mind eager in the pursuit…

— Samuel Johnson

“Moreover, people invariably take a greater interest in the suffering of others than in their well-being. Hence writers must constantly fight against the most…

— Minae Mizumura