Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) was an English writer, critic, lexicographer, and moralist whose authority shaped eighteenth-century letters. His Dictionary of the English Language was one of the great scholarly achievements of its age, combining definition, quotation, judgment, and wit. Johnson also wrote the philosophical tale Rasselas, the periodical essays of The Rambler and The Idler, the poem The Vanity of Human Wishes, and the influential Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets. He matters because he brought moral seriousness to criticism without losing conversational force. Johnson understood literature as a guide to conduct, suffering, ambition, and common human limitation. His life, preserved vividly in James Boswell's biography, became almost as influential as his books. His quotes remain memorable for their balance of blunt common sense, learned range, and humane severity. His sentences still reward readers who value judgment sharpened by experience.

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