Samuel Johnson , wegen seiner Gelehrsamkeit meist Dr. Johnson genannt , war ein englischer Gelehrter, Lexikograf, Schriftsteller, Dichter und Kritiker. Er ist nach William Shakespeare der meistzitierte englische Autor und war im 18. Jahrhundert die wichtigste Person im literarischen Leben Englands, vergleichbar mit Gottsched in Deutschland.
„Patriotismus ist die letzte Zuflucht des Halunken.“
"The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D." von James Boswell, Eintrag vom 7. April 1775. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1791. Band 1, S. 211
Original engl. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
"The Life of Samuel Johnson, L.L.D." von James Boswell, Eintrag vom 31. Juli 1763. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1791. Band 1, S. 112
Original engl. "Sir, a woman's preaching is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."
Quelle: Übersetzung Wikiquote
"The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D." von James Boswell, Eintrag vom 20. September 1777. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1791. Band 2, S. 160
Original engl. "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
“Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 26
The Patriot (1774)
March 20, 1782
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can.”
1780
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“Sir, I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance.”
November 1784, p. 566
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
Pitt's Reply to Walpole, Speech, March 6, 1741. This is the composition of Johnson, founded on some note or statement of the actual speech. Johnson said, "That speech I wrote in a garret, in Exeter Street." Boswell: Life of Johnson, 1741
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
July 6, 1763, p. 120
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
September 14, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
Feb. 15, 1766, p. 145
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
“Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 13; variant with modernized spelling: Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
“He who praises everybody praises nobody.”
Johnson's Works (1787), vol. XI, p. 216; This set included the Life of Samuel Johnson by Sir John Hawkins
1773
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)
Vol. I, p. 137
Letters to and from Dr. Samuel Johnson
Variante: The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
“Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 26
“Come, let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy!”
October 23, 1773
Ordering a glass of whisky for himself
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
“Was ever poet so trusted before?”
1774
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)
No. 151 (27 August 1751). http://books.google.com/books?id=VvhDAAAAYAAJ&q=%22avarice+is+generally+the+last+passion+of+those+lives+of+which+the+first+part+has+been+squandered+in+pleasure+and+the+second+devoted+to+ambition%22&pg=PA262#v=onepage
The Rambler (1750–1752)
The Life of Addison
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
“Example is always more efficacious than precept.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 29
“Here's to the next insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies.”
September 23, 1777, p. 363
A toast made by Johnson, as Boswell states, "when in company with some very grave men at Oxford".
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat."”
In response to a line of a tragedy that went 'Who rules o'er freemen should himself be free." June 1784
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“With these celestial Wisdom calms the mind,
And makes the happiness she does not find.”
Quelle: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 367
Quelle: Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 281
“Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.”
Quelle: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Line added to Goldsmith's Deserted Village
1781, p. 479
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning.”
The Life of Dryden
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
