Samuel Johnson Quotes About English Language

• Language is the dress of thought.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Learning, Thinking

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

• Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Letter to Francesco Sastres, 21 Aug. 1784

• I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigrees of nations.

  Samuel Johnson

  Sorry, Communication, Tongue

  In James Boswell 'Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides' (1785) 18 September 1773

• An Englishman is content to say nothing when he has nothing to say.

  Samuel Johnson

  Language, English Language, Englishmen

  In James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 15 (1780) Sir, your wife, under pretence of keeping a bawdy-house, is a receiver of stolen goods. During an exchange of coarse raillery customary among people travelling upon the Thames, in James Boswell 'The Life of Samuel Johnson' (1791) vol. 4, p. 26 (1780)

• When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

  Samuel Johnson

  Weather, Two, Firsts

  "The Idler" by Samuel Johnson, No. 11, June 24, 1758.

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