1.

STORIES OF FRIENDSHIP, HATRED AND LEGENDARY LOVE

No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Of the blessings set before you, make your choice and be content.

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen

The happiest part of a man's life is what he passes lying awake in bed in the morning.

A Man, Sir, should keep his friendships in constant repair

To love one that is great, is almost to be great one's self.

The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity.

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information
upon it.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor
tends / …/.

Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is
original is not good.

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

Many things difficult to design prove easy to performance.

Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained
upon easier terms.
 (Doctor Samuel Johnson, 1709- 1784)

The Brit and the Scot

Doctor Samuel Johnson, (1709- 1784) and James Boswell (1740 – 1795)

The last quote in the above florilège states best the destiny of Doctor Samuel Johnson and his Scottish
friend, James Boswell. Indeed, both men engrossed themselves in one major pursuit: Samuel Johnson
wrote A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) while James Boswell wrote The Life of Samuel
Johnson (1791). Johnson and his biographer shared at least two passions: the love for words and a feel
for friendship. Samuel Johnson, son of a Lichfield (Straffordshire) bookseller, spent almost nine years
compiling his Dictionary, almost single - handed (1755). Its issue was delivered under a contract
between the London book-sellers and Johnson. In 2014, this contract might be worth 210,000 lbs. The
dictionary was not the first one in English culture but it soon became unanimously cherished as a work
of high scholarship that replaced the unsatisfactory products that had preceded it. It came to be used
throughout the Anglo-Saxon World, in both households and libraries. Johnson laid the grounds for the
very methodology of dictionary design and entry contents. Despite inconsistencies and flaws, about
1,700 word definitions were reproduced by the Oxford English Dictionary released 173 later. The
Americans in the United States also used it until Noah Webster published Compendious Dictionary of the
English Language in 1806 with innovations meant to map out the specifics of English as used in America.

Johnson loved both the written and the spoken word and he had a great propensity for friendship. That
is the reason why, his much younger and rich friend, James Boswell, kept up to date records of their
conversations. Based on these notes, Boswell wrote, after the death of his friend, The Life of Samuel
Johnson. Both friends made sacrifices to maintain their friendship. Johnson accepted to visit Scotland, an
area of the British Isles that he detested. Boswell, formerly a young and well off pursuer of fame in the
London literary circles, restrained his easy going ways and debauchery in order to be able to complete
the biography of his friend after the death of the latter.

It was a Monday in May 16, 1763 when the two men met by chance for the first time. Boswell was
having tea in the back-parlour of a book seller who happened to know Johnson. When the latter passed
by, the bookseller, Mr Davies, invited him in and introduced Boswell. That Monday was one of the most
propitious starts of a week for English lexicography and literature.