15 Quotes by Samuel Johnson about book

  • Author Samuel Johnson
  • Quote

    A man who writes a book, thinks himself wiser or wittier than the rest of mankind; he supposes that he can instruct or amuse them, and the publick to whom he appeals, must, after all, be the judges of his pretensions.

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  • Author Samuel Johnson
  • Quote

    In my early years I read very hard. It is a sad reflection, but a true one, that I knew almost as much at eighteen as I do now.

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  • Author Samuel Johnson
  • Quote

    Modern writers are the moons of literature; they shine with reflected light, with light borrowed from the ancients.

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  • Author Samuel Johnson
  • Quote

    One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.

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  • Author Samuel Johnson
  • Quote

    You may translate books of science exactly. ... The beauties of poetry cannot be preserved in any language except that in which it was originally written.

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