Samuel Johnson Quotes about Writing

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

In all pointed sentences, some degree of accuracy must be sacrificed to conciseness.

Writing, Degrees, Accuracy

'The Bravery of the English Common Soldier' in 'The British Magazine' January 1760 (Yale ed., vol. 10, p. 281)

If you want to be a writer, then write. Write every day!

Writing, Want, Ifs

A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning is like a bad marksman who, instead of aiming a single stone at an object, takes up a handful and throws at it in hopes he may hit.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Men, Political

What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.

Samuel Johnson

Inspirational, Book, Writing

Quoted in William Seward, Biographia (1799)

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Samuel Johnson

Wisdom, Writing, Procrastination

Statement on April 14, 1775. "Life of Samuel Johnson". Book by James Boswell. Volume II, 1791.

Language is the dress of thought.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Learning, Thinking

Lives of the English Poets "Cowley" (1779 - 1781)

Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Writing, Thinking

"The Sayings of Doctor Johnson".

The task of an author is, either to teach what is not known, or to recommend known truths by his manner of adorning them; either to let new light in upon the mind, and open new scenes to the prospect, or to vary the dress and situation of common objects, so as to give them fresh grace and more powerful attractions, to spread such flowers over the regions through which the intellect has already made its progress, as may tempt it to return, and take a second view of things hastily passed over, or negligently regarded.

Samuel Johnson

Powerful, Flower, Writing

Samuel Johnson (1787). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: Together with His Life, and Notes on His Lives of the Poets, by Sir John Hawkins, Knt. In Eleven Volumes ...”, p.14

Nothing detains the reader's attention more powerfully than deep involutions of distress, or sudden vicissitudes of fortune; and these might be abundantly afforded by memoirs of the sons of literature. They are entangled by contracts which they know not how to fulfill, and obliged to write on subjects which they do not understand. Every publication is a new period of time, from which some increase or declension of fame is to be reckoned. The gradations of a hero's life are from battle to battle, and of an author's from book to book.

Samuel Johnson

Book, Hero, Writing

Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.406

He that condemns himself to compose on a stated day will often bring to his task attention dissipated, a memory embarrassed, an imagination overwhelmed, a mind distracted with anxieties, a body languishing with disease: he will labour on a barren topic till it is too late to change it; or, in the ardour of invention, diffuse his thoughts into wild exuberance, which the pressing hour of publication cannot suffer judgment to examine or reduce.

Samuel Johnson

Memories, Writing, Imagination

Samuel Johnson (1823). “The Works of Samuel Johnson: An essay on the life and genius of Dr. Johnson [by A. Murphy] Poems.- v. 2-4. The rambler.- v. 5. The idler. History of Rasselas, prince of Abissinia.- v. 6-8. The lives of the English poets.- v. 9. Lives of eminent persons. Letters, selected from the collection of Mrs. Piozzi and others. Prayers and meditations.- v. 10. Philological tracts, &c.- v. 11. Miscellaneous tracts, &c. Dedications. Reviews and criticisms. Tales of imagination. The adventurers.-”, p.59

The only end of writing is to enable readers better to enjoy life or better to endure it.

Samuel Johnson

Reading, Writing, Enjoy Life

'A Free Enquiry' (1757, ed. D. Greene, 1984) reviewing Soame Jenyns

To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Practice, Mind

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.”, p.537

A successful author is equally in danger of the diminution of his fame, whether he continues or ceases to write. The regard of the public is not to be kept but by tribute, and the remembrance of past service will quickly languish unless successive performances frequently revive it. Yet in every new attempt there is new hazard, and there are few who do not, at some unlucky time, injure their own characters by attempting to enlarge them.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Character, Successful

Samuel Johnson, Elizabeth Carter, Samuel Richardson, Catherine Talbot (1825). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.39

While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Worst, Rate

The Plays of William Shakespeare preface (1765)

You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

Samuel Johnson

War, Book, Writing

The art of the writer, like that of the player, is attained by slow degrees. The power of distinguishing and discriminating comick characters, or of filling tragedy with poetical images, must be the gift of nature, which no instruction nor labour can supply; but the art of dramatick disposition, the contexture of the scenes, the involution of the plot, the expedients of suspension, and the strategems of surprise, are to be learned by practice.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Character, Writing

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy, Francis Pearson Walesby (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D..: The Adventurer and Idler”, p.223

To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the first summons; but such happiness, the greatest genius does not always obtain; and common writers know it only to such a degree, as to credit its possibility. Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.

Samuel Johnson

Perseverance, Writing, Expression

Samuel Johnson (1825). “The Works of Samuel Johnson: The adventurer and idler”, p.145

A man will turn over half a library to make one book.

Samuel Johnson

Book, Writing, Men

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 6 Apr. 1775)

Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Silence, Abuse

Samuel Johnson (1840). “The Life and Writings of Samuel Johnson...”, p.51

It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends.

Samuel Johnson

Book, Fall, Writing

Samuel Johnson (1966). “Johnsonian miscellanies”, Constable

Too much nicety of detail disgusts the greatest part of readers, and to throw a multitude of particulars under general heads, and lay down rules of extensive comprehension, is to common understandings of little use.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Understanding, Littles

Samuel Johnson (1784). “The Rambler: In Four Volumes..”, p.206

There is nothing more dreadful to an author than neglect; compared with which reproach, hatred, and opposition are names of happiness; yet this worst, this meanest fate, every one who dares to write has reason to fear.

Samuel Johnson

Writing, Fate, Names

Samuel Johnson, Arthur Murphy (1828). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.128

The authour who imitates his predecessors only by furnishing himself with thoughts and elegances out of the same general magazine of literature, can with little more propriety be reproached as a plagiary, than the architect can be censured as a mean copier of Angelo or Wren, because he digs his marble out of the same quarry, squares his stones by the same art, and unites them in columns of the same orders.

Samuel Johnson

Art, Mean, Writing

Samuel Johnson (1828). “The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752”, p.278