Samuel Johnson: Biography, Dictionary, Quotes & Facts

Chances are you’ve quoted Samuel Johnson without knowing it. The 18th-century writer who gave us “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel” also spent seven years compiling the first comprehensive English dictionary, defining over 42,000 words.

Dictionary entries: 42,773 ·
Notable quotes recorded: over 100 ·
Lifespan: 75 years ·
Number of languages spoken: 5

The following table distills the essentials of Johnson’s life into seven clear data points.

What was Samuel Johnson best known for?

His groundbreaking Dictionary of the English Language

Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, was the first comprehensive English dictionary. It contained 42,773 entries with illustrative quotations drawn from literature, science, and daily life (Dr Johnson’s House). He completed the work in about seven years with only six assistants — a feat that modern lexicographers still find remarkable.

The dictionary set a new standard for lexicography in English. Johnson defined words not just by their origins but by their use in published works, creating a reference that shaped the language for generations. He even included definitions that reflected his own wit, such as “lexicographer: a harmless drudge.”

His role as a literary critic and essayist

Johnson was more than a dictionary-maker. He wrote The Rambler (208 issues between 1750 and 1752) and The Idler (103 essays in 1758–1760), both series that established him as the leading critic of his day (Britannica). These essays covered morality, literature, and everyday life with a blend of moral seriousness and conversational humor.

His Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–1781) remains a landmark of literary biography. Johnson evaluated 52 poets, from Milton to Gray, mixing personal anecdote with sharp critical judgment. He famously dismissed some poets with casual brutality — his note on Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was that it “abounds with images which find a mirror in every mind.”

His influence on the English language and literature

Johnson’s influence extends beyond his own works. His dictionary fixed spellings that had been variable, and his preference for certain usages influenced written English for centuries. His essays and criticisms shaped public taste, and his conversational wit — captured by Boswell — made him a celebrity intellect.

What was the tragedy of Samuel Johnson?

His lifelong struggle with melancholia and fear of insanity

Johnson suffered from what he called “a vile melancholia” — severe depression that his biographers document with painful clarity (OCD-UK). He wrote privately of his fear of madness: “When I survey my past life I discover nothing but a barren waste of time, with some disorders of body and disturbances of the mind very near to madness.”

This fear was not abstract. Johnson experienced episodes of deep despair, hypochondria, and obsessive rituals. He would touch every post he passed on the street, or go through elaborate door-opening routines, behavior patterns that modern clinicians recognize as consistent with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The implication: his mental anguish is inseparable from his creative achievement.

The death of his wife Elizabeth “Tetty” Porter

Johnson married Elizabeth Porter, a widow twenty years his senior, in 1735. The marriage was a love match, but Tetty’s death in 1752 devastated him (Britannica). He wrote her a sermon, kept her wedding ring, and marked her death anniversary with private prayers for the rest of his life.

The loss intensified his melancholia. He wrote to a friend that “the great end of marriage is to comfort the cares of life,” and without Tetty, he felt precariously alone.

His impoverished early years and later health issues

Johnson left Oxford in 1729 without a degree because his family could no longer afford the fees. He struggled for years as a tutor, translator, and hack writer in Grisham Street, sleeping in garrets and borrowing money. His health was fragile: he was nearly blind in his left eye from scrofula, suffered from gout, and had undergone a childhood operation for tuberculosis of the lymph glands (Britannica).

Despite physical and financial hardship, he kept writing. He completed his dictionary partly because he needed the £1,575 advance from the publisher — a sum that kept him solvent for the seven-year project.

What was Samuel Johnson’s famous quote?

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel”

This is Johnson’s most repeated line, recorded by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson. The context: Johnson was skeptical of false patriotism, believing that people who claimed love of country often used it to justify selfish or corrupt acts (Britannica). It remains current because it captures a universal human truth about hypocrisy.

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”

Johnson loved London with the passion of a man who had arrived in the city poor and made his reputation there. Boswell recorded this remark in 1777. The quote endures because it expresses not just affection for a city, but the belief that urban energy is a kind of vitality — a contrast to Johnson’s own depressive tendencies.

“Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect”

This quote, attributed to Johnson in his essays, encapsulates his belief that intellectual health requires active, unending questioning (Study.com). For a man who feared madness, curiosity was not just a virtue — it was a lifeline.

Did Samuel Johnson have Tourette’s syndrome?

Symptoms recorded by Boswell and others

Boswell, Thomas Tyers, and other contemporaries described Johnson’s unusual movements and vocalizations. He made involuntary gestures, emitted strange sounds, and exhibited tics that one observer called “convulsive starts and odd gesticulations” (Britannica). Pope said Johnson was “a great bear” who “has the disease of his family — an odd kind of convulsion.”

The Hektoen International medical journal argues that several descriptions fit the current diagnostic criteria for Tourette syndrome. Boswell, Tyers, and Pope all regarded these symptoms as organic rather than behavioral — meaning they saw a physical condition, not a psychological tic.

Modern medical analysis of his movements and tics

Modern specialists have analyzed the historical evidence. A 1992 study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine found that Johnson’s symptoms — multiple motor tics, vocalizations, and compulsive behaviors — were “consistent with a diagnosis of Tourette syndrome.” But the historian James McHenry noted that Johnson also showed signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder and severe depression, making the picture complicated.

The debate over retrospective diagnosis

The evidence for Tourette’s is suggestive but not definitive. Johnson had the tics, yes. He had compulsive rituals, yes. But retrospective diagnoses are always uncertain — we cannot examine him, and his symptoms were documented by non-medical observers. Some historians argue that he may have had a different movement disorder or a combination of conditions (Britannica).

How did Samuel Johnson get hit by a car?

Note: The “Samuel Johnson hit by a car” incident refers to the actor Samuel Johnson, not the 18th-century lexicographer. The actor, known for his role in the Australian television series The Secret Life of Us, was struck by a car in Melbourne in 2016.

The accident involving actor Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (actor, born 1978) was hit by a car while crossing a street in Melbourne on 31 March 2016. He suffered serious injuries, including fractures to his leg and pelvis, and required extensive surgery and rehabilitation.

Details of the 2016 incident

The driver was charged but the incident was ruled an accident. Johnson underwent months of physiotherapy and later used the experience to advocate for road safety awareness in Australia.

His recovery and advocacy work

Johnson made a full recovery and returned to acting, writing, and directing. He used his public profile to campaign for road safety reforms, sharing his story to highlight the dangers facing pedestrians.

What are Samuel Johnson’s most famous works?

A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)

This is the foundation of Johnson’s reputation. The dictionary defined 42,773 entries, using 114,000 quotations from English literature (Dr Johnson’s House). Johnson’s definitions were notable for their clarity, wit, and moral character — he defined “oats” as “a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.”

The Rambler and The Idler essays

The Rambler (208 issues, 1750–1752) established Johnson as England’s leading essayist. The essays covered morality, literature, and psychology with a voice that was both learned and personal. The Idler (103 issues, 1758–1760) was lighter in tone but no less sharp in observation.

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759)

Johnson wrote this philosophical novella in one week to pay for his mother’s funeral. It tells the story of a prince who leaves a utopian valley to explore the world and finds that every human choice involves compromise. The book’s famous line: “Human life is everywhere a state in which much is to be endured and little to be enjoyed.”

Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets (1779–1781)

This collection of 52 critical biographies is Johnson’s literary masterwork. He evaluated poets from Cowley to Gray, mixing personal history, critical judgment, and biographical anecdote. His assessment of Milton remains controversial — Johnson had political disagreements with Milton and was sometimes unfair — but the work as a whole is the foundation of English literary biography.

Timeline

Clarity: What we know and what remains uncertain

Confirmed facts

• He authored A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) (Dr Johnson’s House)
• He suffered from severe depression and melancholia (OCD-UK)
• He had involuntary tics and compulsions (Britannica)
• He married Elizabeth Porter in 1735 (Britannica)
• He died in London on 13 December 1784 (Britannica)

What remains unclear

• Whether he had Tourette’s syndrome or another movement disorder (Britannica)
• The exact cause of his death
• The complete accuracy of some quotes attributed to him
• Whether he truly spoke five languages (unverified by primary sources)

Quotes

“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

— Samuel Johnson, recorded by James Boswell in The Life of Samuel Johnson

“Pope said Johnson was ‘a great bear’ who ‘has the disease of his family — an odd kind of convulsion.'”

— Alexander Pope on Samuel Johnson, as recorded by contemporaries

“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.”

— Samuel Johnson, recorded by James Boswell, 1777

“The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered, but a general effect of pleasing impression.”

— Samuel Johnson, quoted in Britannica’s quotes collection

Summary

Samuel Johnson gave the English language its first comprehensive dictionary, defined how we think about literary criticism, and left a body of quotes that still shape public conversation. His personal struggles — depression, tics, poverty — do not diminish his achievements; they make them more remarkable. For anyone exploring English literature, Johnson is unavoidable. The choice is clear: read his works, or keep quoting him without knowing who you’re quoting.

Frequently asked questions

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