“Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.”

English writer and polymath

Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer and polymath. He is best known for his Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755, a work of 42,733 entries that shaped the study and use of English. Beyond the dictionary, Johnson wrote as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermon writer, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. His reputation rests on the breadth of that work and on his lasting influence on the English language.