“Subordination tends greatly to human happiness. Were we all upon an equality, we should have no other enjoyment than mere animal pleasure.”

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.