Samuel Johnson on Books

"The act of writing itself distracts the thoughts, and what is read twice is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed."

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book."

"Hawkesworth said of Johnson, "You have a memory that would convict any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world."

"Merriment is always the effect of a sudden impression. The jest which is expected is already destroyed."

"Books that you may carry to the fire, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all."

"'Paradise Lost' is one of the books which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is."

"Was there ever yet any thing written by mere man that was wished longer by its readers, excepting Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, and the Pilgrim's Progress?"

"I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read."

"It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them."

"I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to be right."

"The richest author that ever grazed the common of literature."

"He delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning."