Samuel Johnson Quotes
Men are seldom more innocently employed than when they are making money.
Although England had benefitted more from the industrial revolution than most nations, the English Aristocracy and its intelligencia saw business as inherently corrupt with minimal ethical standards and almost no transparency. See {629121} for a Christian religious version of this secular quotation.
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English Writer & Lexicographer, Quoted in Ralph Waldo Emerson, “American Civilization”, The Atlantic Monthly, April 1862
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See {629122} for a secular version of this religious text.
- Born: September 18, 1709
- Died: December 13, 1784
- Nationality: English
- Profession: Poet, Playwright, Essayist, Moralist, Literary Critic, Biographer, Editor, Lexicographer
Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. Religiously, he was a devout Anglican, and politically a committed Tory. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is the subject of James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, described by Walter Jackson Bate as "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature".
