QuotesQuotes from Bacon, Pope and Dr Johnson
Three masters of the short, sharp English sentence: Francis Bacon (1561 to 1626), essayist and statesman; Alexander Pope (1688 to 1744), poet; and Samuel Johnson (1709 to 1784), who compiled the great English dictionary of 1755 and whose talk was recorded by James Boswell.
Francis Bacon
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
Francis Bacon, Essays: Of StudiesSome books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Francis Bacon, Essays: Of StudiesRevenge is a kind of wild justice.
Francis Bacon, Essays: Of RevengeVirtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
Francis Bacon, Essays: Of BeautyHope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Francis Bacon, Apophthegms
Alexander Pope
To err is human, to forgive divine.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711)A little learning is a dangerous thing.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711)For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism (1711)Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733 to 1734)The proper study of mankind is man.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733 to 1734)
Samuel Johnson
When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.
Samuel Johnson, in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Samuel Johnson, in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Samuel Johnson, in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance.
Samuel Johnson, Rasselas (1759)Language is the dress of thought.
Samuel Johnson, Lives of the Poets: Cowley (1779)
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Good to know
- Dr Johnson's spoken remarks come from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).