Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson, Volume 1 |
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Page viii
... never felt myself from home1 . ' He often boasted of his descent from Robert Bruce . But this universality , which was one of his greatest merits , may have come to him from his ' great - grandmother , Veronica , Countess of Kincardine ...
... never felt myself from home1 . ' He often boasted of his descent from Robert Bruce . But this universality , which was one of his greatest merits , may have come to him from his ' great - grandmother , Veronica , Countess of Kincardine ...
Page ix
... never have made Johnson all that he is to us . Benjamin Franklin had more common sense than the frame of any single man seems capable of containing or supporting . But who loves common sense when it stands alone ? It must be dashed by ...
... never have made Johnson all that he is to us . Benjamin Franklin had more common sense than the frame of any single man seems capable of containing or supporting . But who loves common sense when it stands alone ? It must be dashed by ...
Page x
... never snarls and he never whines . He is never ' guilty of sullenness against nature 1 . ' Life , he holds , is unhappy , it must be unhappy . But what of that ? Something can be done to make it happier , and that something we must each ...
... never snarls and he never whines . He is never ' guilty of sullenness against nature 1 . ' Life , he holds , is unhappy , it must be unhappy . But what of that ? Something can be done to make it happier , and that something we must each ...
Page xi
... never confounds what is with what ought to be . Happiness is not , he maintains , the unfailing consequence of virtue . ' We do not always suffer by our crimes ; we are not always protected by our innocence ? ' He never throws the veil ...
... never confounds what is with what ought to be . Happiness is not , he maintains , the unfailing consequence of virtue . ' We do not always suffer by our crimes ; we are not always protected by our innocence ? ' He never throws the veil ...
Page xii
... never acts up to a part . ' I never considered , ' he says , ' whether I should be a grave man , or a merry man , but just let inclination for the time have its course " . ' In Fleet - street , in the silence of the night , he bursts ...
... never acts up to a part . ' I never considered , ' he says , ' whether I should be a grave man , or a merry man , but just let inclination for the time have its course " . ' In Fleet - street , in the silence of the night , he bursts ...
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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.