Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson, Volume 1 |
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Page vi
... labours has not been in vain , for we now know Johnson as no other man is known to us . It is with the characters of fiction alone that we have the same kind of friendly and close intimacy . Our acquaintance with him is not as with ...
... labours has not been in vain , for we now know Johnson as no other man is known to us . It is with the characters of fiction alone that we have the same kind of friendly and close intimacy . Our acquaintance with him is not as with ...
Page 6
... labour of perusal , that they give the mind an unfashionable cast , and destroy that freedom of thought and easiness of manners indispensably requisite to acceptance in the world . Tom has therefore found another way to wisdom . When he ...
... labour of perusal , that they give the mind an unfashionable cast , and destroy that freedom of thought and easiness of manners indispensably requisite to acceptance in the world . Tom has therefore found another way to wisdom . When he ...
Page 16
... labour . Thebais , multa cruciata lima , Tentat , audaci fide , Mantuana Gaudia fama . Polish'd with endless toil , my lays At length aspire to Mantuan praise . Rambler , No. 169 . NOTHING is more common than to find men whose works are ...
... labour . Thebais , multa cruciata lima , Tentat , audaci fide , Mantuana Gaudia fama . Polish'd with endless toil , my lays At length aspire to Mantuan praise . Rambler , No. 169 . NOTHING is more common than to find men whose works are ...
Page 17
... labours afford light to the repositories of science , and add celebrity to Bacon , to Hooker , to Milton , and to Boyle . When I am animated by this wish , I look with pleasure on my book , however defective , and deliver it to the ...
... labours afford light to the repositories of science , and add celebrity to Bacon , to Hooker , to Milton , and to Boyle . When I am animated by this wish , I look with pleasure on my book , however defective , and deliver it to the ...
Page 19
... labours by in- numerable prejudices . Our juvenile compositions please us because they bring to our minds the remembrance ... labour he sets a high value because he is unwilling to think that he has been diligent in vain ; what has been ...
... labours by in- numerable prejudices . Our juvenile compositions please us because they bring to our minds the remembrance ... labour he sets a high value because he is unwilling to think that he has been diligent in vain ; what has been ...
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Common terms and phrases
Adventurer amusements attention believe better BOSWELL Boswell's censure character common commonly consider contempt conversation crime D'Arblay's Diary death delight desire dignity distress dreadful endeavour equally evil expected Falstaff fame fancy favour fear feel folly genius give happiness hear honour hope human humour idle Idler ignorance imagination inclination JAMES MACPHERSON knowledge labour lady learning less Lichfield Cathedral live Lord mankind merit mind misery moral nation nature never observed once opinion ourselves pain Paradise Lost passions perhaps Piozzi Letters Piozzi's Anecdotes pleased pleasure poverty praise pretty woman Pupillage Rambler Rasselas reason religion rich Samuel Johnson seldom Soame Jenyns sorrow Streatham suffer suppose surely talk tell things thought tion truth vanity vice viii virtue Wisdom of Samuel wise wish Wit and Wisdom write
Popular passages
Page 39 - Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help...
Page 38 - My Lord, I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship.
Page 26 - I have often thought that there has rarely passed a life of which a judicious and faithful narrative would not be useful ; for not only every man has, in the mighty mass of the world, great numbers in the same condition with himself, to whom his mistakes and miscarriages, escapes and expedients, would be of immediate and apparent use ; but...
Page 162 - DISORDERS of intellect, answered Imlac, happen much more often than superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. There is no man whose imagination does not sometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command.
Page 182 - ... powers of Shakespeare, and who desires to feel the highest pleasure that the drama can give, read every play from the first scene to the last with utter negligence of all his commentators. When his fancy is once on the wing, let it not stoop at correction or explanation. When his attention is strongly engaged, let it disdain alike to turn aside to the name of Theobald and of Pope.
Page 143 - Condemn'd to Hope's delusive mine, As on we toil from day to day, By sudden blasts, or slow decline, Our social comforts drop away. Well tried through many a varying year, See Levett to the grave descend ; Officious, innocent, sincere, Of every friendless name the friend. Yet still he fills Affection's eye, Obscurely wise and coarsely kind ; Nor...
Page 263 - If there be, what I believe there is, in every nation, a style which never becomes obsolete, a certain mode of phraseology so consonant and congenial to the analogy and principles of its respective language, as to remain settled and unaltered ; this style is probably to be sought in the common intercourse of life, among those who speak only to be understood, without ambition of elegance.
Page 296 - When we see men grow old and die at a certain time one after another, from century to century, we laugh at the elixir that promises to prolong life to a thousand years; and with equal justice may the lexicographer be derided who, being able to produce no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability, shall imagine that his dictionary can embalm his language and secure it from corruption and decay, that it is in his power to change sublunary nature and clear the world...
Page 154 - The freaks, and humours, and spleen, and vanity of women, as they embroil families in discord, and fill houses with disquiet, do more to obstruct the happiness of life in a year than the ambition of the clergy in many centuries.
Page 252 - They are happy as brutes are happy, with a piece of fresh meat, — with the grossest sensuality. But, sir, the profession of soldiers and sailors has the dignity of danger. Mankind reverence those who have got over fear, which is so general a weakness.