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."
April 17, 1778, p. 396
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“The endearing elegance of female friendship.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 46
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 613
Actually said by Charles de Gaulle, on leaving his presidency, as quoted inLife' (9 May 1969)
Misattributed
“Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 11
March 28, 1776, p. 296
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“Must helpless man, in ignorance sedate,
Roll darkling down the torrent of his fate?”
Quelle: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 345
1763
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)
August 31 and September 23, 1773
Also quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
“Wickedness is always easier than virtue; for it takes the short cut to everything.”
September 17, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
“Sir, you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both.”
May 1776 http://books.google.com/books?id=8DcUAAAAYAAJ&q=%22Sir+you+have+but+two+topicks+yourself+and+me+I+am+sick+of+both%22&pg=PA53#v=onepage, p. 313
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III
“I am a great friend to public amusements; for they keep people from vice.”
1772
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)
The Patriot (1774)
“Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea.”
When asked by Maurice Morgann whom he considered to be the better poet — Smart or Derrick, 1783, p. 504
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
“A man will turn over half a library to make one book.”
April 6, 1775
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol II
“The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small.”
1778
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Life of Johnson (Boswell)
Quelle: Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 206
“English superiority and American obedience.”
As quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1-55786-664-3 (1994), by Robert DeMaria, Jr., Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 252–256.
“Gratitude is a fruit of great cultivation; you do not find it among gross people.”
September 20, 1773
The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
“Let observation with extensive view
Survey mankind, from China to Peru.”
Quelle: Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Line 1; comparable to: "All human race, from China to Peru, Pleasure, howe’er disguis’d by art, pursue", Thomas Warton, Universal Love of Pleasure
“The limbs will quiver and move after the soul is gone.”
Northcote, 487
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919), Johnsoniana
Winter, An Ode. The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1787), p. 355
“To a poet nothing can be useless.”
Quelle: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Chapter 10
Quelle: Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 111
“The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.”
Life of Milton
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
“There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed.”
No. 86 (12 January 1751)
The Rambler (1750–1752)
