The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Comprehending an Account of His Studies, and Numerous Works, in Chronological Order ; a Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons ; and Various Original Pieces of His Composition, Never Before Published ; the Whole Exhibiting a View of Literature and Literary Men in Great Britain, for Near Half a Century During which He Flourished, Volume 3 |
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Popular passages
Page 50 - There are few ways in which a man can be more innocently employed than in getting money.
Page 87 - Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Page 258 - And if Jack Wilkes should be there, what is that to me, Sir? My dear friend, let us have no more of this. I am sorry to be angry with you; but really it is treating me strangely to talk to me as if I could not meet any company whatever, occasionally.
Page 68 - Yes, Sir, when a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly.' The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write : a man will turn over half a library to make one book.
Page 173 - Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest: welcome at an inn.
Page 181 - The vastness and the contrivance of some of the machinery would have "matched his mighty mind." I shall never forget Mr. Boulton's expression to me, " I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have — POWER.
Page 264 - You will allow his Apology to be well done." JOHNSON: "Very well done, to be sure, Sir. That book is a striking proof of the justice of Pope's remark: "Each might his several province well command, Would all but stoop to what they understand.
Page 354 - Life, he must represent- it really as it was :" and when I objected to the danger of telling that Parnell drank to excess, he said, that " it would produce an instructive caution to avoid drinking, when it was seen, that even the learning and genius of Parnell could be debased by it.
Page 185 - we are a city of philosophers ; we work with our heads, and make the boobies of Birmingham work for us with their hands.
Page 307 - ... would amplify knowledge with new views and new objects. Set about it therefore, if you can: do what you can easily do without anxious exactness. Lay the foundation, and leave the superstructure to posterity. I am, Sir, 'Your most humble servant, 'SAM. JOHNSON.