Samuel Johnson knows how to lay the smack down!

To the Right Honourable the Earl of Chesterfield

7 February 1755

My Lord

I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of The World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship.   To be so distinguished, is an honour, which, being very little accustomed to favours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, Upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; - that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it.  What I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess.  I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.

Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of favour.  Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.

The shepherd in Virgil grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.

Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help?  The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it.  I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for my self.

Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favourer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my Lord,

your Lordship’s most humble,

most obedient servant

SAM: JOHNSON

Citation: Johnson, Samuel. In Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings. Edited by Patrick Cruttwell. Penguin Books, 1968. Page 252-253.

Samuel Johnson Quotes

I have a book on my bathroom bookshelf named Schott's Original Miscellany.  It is filled with informational tidbits that are sometimes interesting (The rules of Cricket), sometimes mind-boggling (the word in English purported to have the most letters is the scientific name for the Tobacco Mosaic Virus, which has 1,185 letters, and which I will not reproduce here) and sometimes useful (a list of commonly mispelled (sic) words, including conasuwer, which is, correctly, "connoisseur").


But, most importantly for this particular post, there is also a set of quotations from Samuel Johnson (the author of the first essential English Dictionary, and a thought-provoking wit).  I thoroughly enjoy Samuel Johnson's work and so I will offer a sub-selection of Schott's selection of quotes.

"What we hope ever to do with ease, we must learn first to do with diligence."

"The true art of memory is the art of attention."

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

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

"The end of writing is to instruct; the end of poetry is to instruct by pleasing."

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero...must drink brandy."

"To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise.  It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage."

"The longer we live the more we think and the higher the value we put on friendship and tenderness towards parents and friends."

"Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he doesn't possess."

"It matters not how a man dies, but how a man lives.  The act of dying is not of importance, it lasts so short a time."

"He was dull in a new way, and that made many people think him great."

Citation:
Schott, Ben. Schott's Original Miscellany. Bloomsbury, London, United Kingdom. 1988. Pages 22, 23 

Are you idle?

My friend Adam once told me a quote he had heard, that profoundly influenced my thinking about what I am about in life: 

"Failure is succeeding at something that is not important."  

Samuel Johnson, (my bathroom reading...I know: TMI) wrote an essay on the topic of "idleness" which rang some of the same bells.  Those of you who know me to be always planning and preparing will know which paragraph made me wince a little.

"There are some that profess idleness in its full dignity who call themselves the 'idle', as Busiris in the play 'calls himself the Proud'; who boast that they do nothing, and thank their stars that they have nothing to do; who sleep every night till they can sleep no longer, and rise only that exercise may enable them to sleep again; who prolong the reign of darkness by double curtains, and never see the sun but to 'tell him how they hate his beams' , whose whole labour is to vary the postures of indulgence, and whose day differs from their night but as a couch or chair differs from a bed. 

"But idleness predominates in many lives where it is not suspected, for being a vice which terminates in itself, it may be enjoyed without injury to others, and is therefore not watched like fraud, which endangers  property, or like pride which naturally seeks it gratification in another's inferiority. Idleness is a silent and peaceful quality, that neither raises envy by ostentation, nor hatred by opposition; and therefore nobody is busy to censure or detect it. 

"As pride sometimes is hid under humility, idleness is often covered by turbulence and hurry.  He that neglects his known duty and real employment, naturally endeavours to crowd his mind with something that may bar out the remembrance of his own folly, and does anything but what he ought to do with eager diligence, that he may keep himself in his own favour. 

"Some are always in a state of preparation, occupied in previous measures, forming plans, accumulating materials, and providing for the main affair.  These are certainly under the secret power of idleness.  Nothing is to be expected from the workman whose tools are for ever to be sought.  I was once told by a great master, that no man ever excelled in painting, who was eminently curious about pencils and colours. 

"There are others to whom idleness dictates another expedient, by which life may be passed unprofitably away without the tediousness of many vacant hours.  The art is, to fill the day with petty business, to have always something in hand which may raise curiosity, but not solicitude, and keep the mind in a state of action, but not of labour."

Citation,
Johnson, Samuel. Samuel Johnson: Selected Writings. "The Idler, No. 31, Saturday 18 November 1758." Penguin Books, England. 1968. Pages 215-216.