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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 369

 
 
Samuel Johnson. (1709–1784) (continued)
 
4022
    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.
          Life of Addison.
4023
    To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
          Life of Milton.
4024
    The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.
          Life of Milton.
4025
    His death eclipsed the gayety of nations, and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.
          Life of Edmund Smith (alluding to the death of Garrick).
4026
    That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.
          Journey to the Western Islands: Inch Kenneth.
4027
    He is no wise man that will quit a certainty for an uncertainty.
          The Idler. No. 57.
4028
    What is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.
          The Idler. No. 74.
4029
    Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.
          Life of Johnson (Boswell). 1 Vol. i. Chap. vii. 1743.
4030
    Wretched un-idea’d girls.
          Life of Johnson (Boswell). 2 Vol. i. Chap. x. 1752.
4031
    This man [Chesterfield], I thought, had been a lord among wits; but I find he is only a wit among lords. 3
          Life of Johnson (Boswell). 4 Vol. ii. Chap. i. 1754.
 
Note 1.
From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.

Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell’s intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell’s!Thomas Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. [back]
Note 2.
From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.

Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell’s intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell’s!Thomas Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. [back]
Note 3.
See Pope, Quotation 200. [back]
Note 4.
From the London edition, 10 volumes, 1835.

Dr. Johnson, it is said, when he first heard of Boswell’s intention to write a life of him, announced, with decision enough, that if he thought Boswell really meant to write his life he would prevent it by taking Boswell’s!Thomas Carlyle: Miscellanies, Jean Paul Frederic Richter. [back]