“LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.”
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
“Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries, whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.”
Preface http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/preface.html
A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
Context: It is the fate of those, who toil at the lower employments of life, to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise; to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where success would have been without applause, and diligence without reward. Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries, whom mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science, the pioneer of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other author may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted to very few.
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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes
André Breton
(1896–1966) French writer
Quote of Breton, from La Clé des Champs (1953); as cited by Thomas Molnar, The Decline of the Intellectual (1961)
after 1930
José Baroja
(1983) Chilean author and editor
Original: Pienso que vivir solo de la escritura es un privilegio, en términos económicos, que solo algunos escritores y escritoras han conseguido y al que, probablemente, todos los autores aspiramos: una meta difícil que no imposible.
Source: Cazas Fernández, A. (2022). "La escritura le aportó sentido, coherencia e identidad a mi vida". En Correo Gallego. https://www.elcorreogallego.es/el-correo-2/la-escritura-le-aporto-sentido-coherencia-e-identidad-a-mi-vida-AP10794051. Consultado el 16 de junio de 2022.
Stanley Lombardo
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Book XX, lines 333–342; Sarpedon to Glaucus.
Translations, Iliad (1997)
Richard Stallman
(1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project
1980s, GNU Manifesto (1985)
“Facts are not science — as the dictionary is not literature.”
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Fischerisms (1944)
Winston S. Churchill
(1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In "Painting as a Pastime", the Strand Magazine (December 1921/January 1922), cited in Churchill by Himself (2008), ed. Langworth, PublicAffairs, p. 568 ISBN 1586486381
Early career years (1898–1929)
II. Progress and Entropy. p. 46-47
The Human Use of Human Beings (1950)