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Samuel Johnson on Books

1709–1784 England

← All quotes by Samuel Johnson

12 quotes

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.

The Rambler (1750)

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

Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.

The richest author that ever grazed the common of literature.

That book is good in vain, which the reader throws away.

Lives of the English Poets (1779)

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.

Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world."

What is twice read is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.

Resolve to spend a certain number of hours every day amongst your books.

'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is.

Lives of the English Poets (1779)

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.

Misattributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Johnson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.