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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Three writers, three kinds of sentence
Francis Bacon wrote short essays packed like a tiffin box: each sentence holds a complete thought, and often three. His Essays first appeared in 1597 and grew in later editions up to 1625. "Of Studies", the source of the lines on reading, is barely a page long and is still set for students.
Alexander Pope wrote in rhyming pairs of lines called heroic couplets, and finished An Essay on Criticism when he was in his early twenties. Many of his half-lines have become proverbs, and people use them without knowing they are poetry.
Samuel Johnson is remembered for two things: the Dictionary of the English Language (1755), which he compiled largely by himself with the help of a few copyists, and his conversation, written down by his young friend James Boswell and published as a biography after Johnson's death.
Reading the lines rightly
- "A little learning is a dangerous thing" is not against learning. Pope's next line tells the reader to "drink deep", meaning: learn more, not less.
- "Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man": "conference" means conversation and discussion. Reading fills the mind, talking makes it quick, writing makes it precise.
- "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel": Boswell, who recorded it, explains that Johnson did not mean real love of one's country, but the pretended patriotism that some people use as a cloak for self-interest.
- "To err is human, to forgive divine": everyone makes mistakes, and forgiving them is the higher thing.
Using these lines
Bacon's lines on reading are perfect for library week and for essays on books. Pope's "Hope springs eternal" fits sports days and results days. Johnson's "Great works are performed, not by strength, but perseverance" belongs at any prize giving. For Bacon, name the essay. For Pope, the poem. For Johnson's spoken remarks, say "as Boswell records".
Good to know
- Dr Johnson's spoken remarks come from Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).