WORDS FROM A GREAT MIND

Samuel Johnson

Writer, critic & lexicographer

Born: 18 September 1709
Died: 13 December 1784
Lived in: Lichfield, Oxford & London

Samuel Johnson was an English writer, critic, moralist, biographer, and lexicographer. His Dictionary of the English Language became a landmark of English scholarship, while essays, poems, criticism, and Rasselas made him one of the defining literary figures of the eighteenth century.

A LESSER-KNOWN DETAIL

Johnson’s affection for his cat Hodge became famous through Boswell. A bronze Hodge now sits outside Johnson’s London house beside empty oyster shells — the cat’s favourite treat.

Words by Samuel Johnson

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”

Samuel Johnson ↗

“Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.”

Samuel Johnson ↗

“The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.”

Samuel Johnson ↗