Samuel Johnson Quotes About Style

• Some read for style, and some for argument: one has little care about the sentiment, he observes only how it is expressed; another regards not the conclusion, but is diligent to mark how it is inferred; they read for other purposes than the attainment of practical knowledge; and are no more likely to grow wise by an examination of a treatise of moral prudence, than an architect to inflame his devotion by considering attentively the proportions of a temple.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wise, Reading, Style

  Samuel Johnson (1810). “The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay on his life and genius”, p.292

• It is indeed not easy to distinguish affectation from habit; he that has once studiously developed a style, rarely writes afterwards with complete ease.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Style, Ease

  Samuel Johnson, Thomas Babington Macaulay Baron Macaulay (1854). “Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets: With Critical Observation on Their Works”, p.64

• Few faults of style, whether real or imaginary, excite the malignity of a more numerous class of readers, than the use of hard words.

  Samuel Johnson

  Real, Vocabulary, Class

  James Boswell, Samuel Johnson (1799). “Life of Johnson: Including Boswell's Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides and Johnson's Diary of a Journey Into North Wales”, p.253

• Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

  Samuel Johnson

  Night, Giving, Style

  'The Lives of the English Poets' (1779-81) 'Addison'

• A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn.

  Samuel Johnson

  Writing, Style, Poet

  Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) (entry for 22 June 1776)

• Whatever professes to benefit by pleasing must please at once. The pleasures of the mind imply something sudden and unexpected; that which elevates must always surprise.

  Samuel Johnson

  Style, Mind, Benefits

  Samuel Johnson (1977). “Selected Poetry and Prose”, p.380, Univ of California Press

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